This is the first in my new series “Meditation Prompts.” As I was hiking in April at the mountain closest to me in the Lower Peninsula (Bald Mt State Recreation Area), the statement Nature presented to me was, “This is a time of great power and creativity.” It was a moment of pause between seasons. Winter melting into Spring. Nothing in bloom or leaf yet, although the buds on a few trees were beginning to swell. But I could feel the underground activity, fecundity, gestation, birth, and I was amazed at the power it takes to create the explosion of Spring that we experience in northeastern United States. So here I am, stream burbling, wind roaring in the background, contemplating this majestic and magical growth. Take a breath!