Our Environment: “Leaving the Nest” by Scott Turner
Scott Turner, Environmental Columnist
Our Environment: “Leaving the Nest” by Scott Turner
From the back room of our home, you can hear the high-pitched pleadings of American Robin nestlings, when an adult delivers a worm back to the nest, which is tucked atop a few horizontal inches of drainpipe beneath one of the eaves.
I thought of that robin family after our 265-mile drive to Burlington, VT last weekend to attend Rachel’s graduation from the University of Vermont (UVM).
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTNow a newly minted elementary school educator, Rachel will return to Providence this coming week, stay a few days, and then pack up some belongings before heading for California to spend the next 11 months as a City Year intern in San Jose.
Nature-wise, the trip turned back the clock. The Vermont landscape featured the lighter shades of early spring foliage, combined with the darker hues of assorted evergreens.
In Burlington, daffodils were in bloom. So were forsythia, shadbush and Bradford pears. Especially striking were the purplish flowers of early azaleas, which we found planted like hedgerows along the shoreline of Lake Champlain. All of these flowers we’d witnessed come and go in Rhode Island earlier in the month.
Given the soaking rains of recent weeks, you might have thought we’d piloted an ark to Burlington. Alas, we drove a car, the wipers providing a rhythm for the trip.
In the Green Mountain State, we found bloated rivers and flooded fields. Standing water was common. We couldn’t see how folks could plant crops or mow lawns.
The locals in Burlington said that after 70 inches of snowfall and what felt like endless cloudiness, they craved sunshine and warmth. “Enough already,” someone said.
With that in mind, maybe it’s no surprise that Rachel chose an internship in San Jose, which receives more sunshine than roughly 98 percent of the rest of the nation.
In Burlington, the rainfall threatened, but held off, during both the UVM main graduation service and the college ceremony. Accolades were accorded, and degrees awarded. Presenters spoke of equality, hope, justice and unity. They called for building new relationships and bridges wherever we went.
During those events, we sat in chairs between the elms and the crabapples on the University Green. In moments of silence, gulls called overhead, a Chipping Sparrow trilled and an American Robin chirped.
That evening, drenching rains fell, accompanied by lightning, thunder and strong winds.
If you know Rachel, you know that she looks for what people have in common. Rachel rejects division, and strives to cultivate a common humanity. In her way, Rachel delivers sunshine wherever she ventures.
A child’s college graduation is a powerful and lasting point of transition. We felt pride, joy, sadness, and more, during two days of pomp and circumstance that seemed to pass swiftly.
Last weekend, we may have returned to the start of spring in the natural landscape, but Rachel was moving forward. She, like the baby robins on the side of our home, would soon leave the nest.
