Spring Rising

At our April worship gathering, in the midst of the Eastertide season, we celebrated sap rising and the sweetness of early spring. We had just come through sugaring season, when the tree sap rises up the trunks in the first warm weeks of spring, and travels down again overnight. 
Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “It is said that our people learned to make sugar from the squirrels. In late winter, when squirrels are hungry, they take to the treetops and gnaw on the branches of sugar maples. Scraping the bark allows sap to ooze, and the squirrels drink it. The freezing temperature of the night causes the water in the sap to leave a sweet crystalline crust like rock candy behind. The squirrels follow their path from the day before and lick the sugar crystals. Enough to tide the squirrels over through their hungriest time of the year.” (p71, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults) 
I love the knowledge shared from animal to human, and the gifts of maple trees not just enjoyed for pleasure, but as sustenance. Kimmerer suggests that the maple trees care for us, while caring for themselves at the same time. The rising sugary sap, stored all winter in the roots of the dead-looking trees, defies gravity and rises upward to feed the buds so that they can open into leaves that will make their own sugar that they will send down to the roots for storage.  
What is rising in you? What do you notice rising in the outer landscape around you this spring? The sweetness of maple syrup is a collaboration between the trees and the human creatures who boil it down. The sweetness is a taste of the goodness of God. 

Closing Blessing
Blessings of the One who rises from the dead be yours. 
Blessings of life rising again after winter be yours. 
Blessings of the trees who share their gifts be yours. 
May you go from here with sweetness on your lips and the joy of spring in your hearts.
Amen.