Walking with Spring

Back in the early 90's, I was fresh out of college and eager for a bit of adventure. I had just met my now husband, Chris, in Portland, Maine. It was a moment of total serendipity, he was walking down the sidewalk, I was sitting on the curb for a bit of fresh air, and we just started talking. Both of us are shy folks, so this was not the norm.

We talked for hours and ended the night with a plan to hike the Appalachian Trail. What better way to start a new relationship than spending months in the close quarters of a tent with limited access to showers?

We set off on our adventure just a few months later in the early spring. We started in Georgia, heading north to Maine.

In the beginning, the days were cold, with bare trees and few signs of life. As the days wore on, spring started to emerge...first in the valleys with all the lovely colors of the season. Then up on the mountains as spring gradually crept her way up and soon the whole world was ablaze with a thousand different greens. The forest floor was covered with Spring Beauties, tiny white flowers that made the trail look like a ribbon through the snow.

Like in title of the memoir about Earl Shaffer, the first person to hike the AT in its entirety back in 1948, we were Walking with Spring. It's been many years but I'll never forget what a gift it was to have such an intimate experience witnessing the slow, unfurling of a season with nothing else in the world to do but be present.

Kristina Wentzell, walking with spring, oil on canvas, 8 x 8 inches. ©2011

Kristina Wentzell, walking with spring 2, oil on canvas, 8 x 8 inches. ©2011

Kristina Wentzell, walking with spring 3, oil on canvas, 8 x 8 inches. ©2011

Kristina Wentzell, walking with spring 4, oil on canvas, 8 x 8 inches. ©2011

These paintings are available in my 100 Paintings for $100 or Less project.

--