Spring Snippets from a Bear and a Beholder
Teddy Ruxpin was an interactive plush toy popular in the 1980s. If you owned Teddy Ruxpin, you collected his story books, which included a corresponding audio cassette that played when inserted in Teddy’s backside. Teddy moved his eyes and mouth in coordination with the recording as you followed him reading the story.
One of his musical numbers from Grundo Springtime Singtime: A Springtime Sing-Along for One and All, contained the lyrics “Spring has sprung, oh gee-oh joy, everything’s starting up again. Spring has sprung, oh boy-oh boy, look at all the things that are happening.” It continued with lines like “the air is fresh and fine,” “the weather is so much better now,” and “I just said ‘Hi’ to a butterfly and I think it smiled right back at me.” It is a bouncy-cheery earworm I catch myself singing toward the end of every winter.
In the southern part of the United States, where I live, we have green grass all year and flowers that sometimes bloom despite cooler temperatures. Spring announces itself with more daylight, as it does in the northern part of the continent, but we mostly recognize its arrival because lawns need mowing more frequently. Other springtime changes are more subtle, so if I want to witness signs of the new season, I practice becoming more observant.
A crucial way to become more attentive is to evolve consciously into a “noticer,” a term I discovered and adopted while following author Kate Bowler on Instagram. In her Lenten reflections, based on her new book Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day, Ms. Bowler suggests that we, including herself, look around and point at things, find something — anything — and behold it.
To behold is to reach beyond detecting something and to register it as significant. It means truly paying attention so that you can perceive wonder. When you behold, you recognize something as spectacular, even if that something initially appears ordinary.
Begin beholding by at least trying to behold. Come alive to the marvel of each new day. Fill your lungs with air, watch the world spin, and then feel the winds as they change your perspective.
Prepare for surprises! Snap photos of things you discover, creating memories of that moment. Refer to the photos when you need reminding to behold.
Notice a beautiful person, and let that person be you. Behold your aliveness and appreciate who you are becoming and how you are aging. Dig deeply into your beholding well and find blessings that teach, that lure you far beyond dispassion.
Accept and behold any part of you that seems absurd because maybe that part is not as insanely ridiculous as you think. God’s Master Plan just might include your fragmented self so welcome your imperfections and when you fall short, stand tall and behold more.
Behold God-laden moments. Behold colors. Behold the unadorned. Behold the lovely. Behold the mundane. Behold whatever and all.
Sometimes life is hard, sometimes it is floppy, and sometimes it is downright smooth. Whichever it currently is for you, stop to awe and ogle. Say “Hi” to a butterfly and watch it smile right back at you.
Lo and behold! Spring has sprung!
