April 2023 Backyard Bulletin

View the full edition at this link.

One of Leonard Cohen's best known ideas comes from the line, "There's a crack, a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in." It's a line that's been appropriated in many different ways, and I happened across it as a reference in other media several times this month. I started thinking about how themes get modified over years, taking on lives of their own. I don't know what Leonard Cohen was writing about or what he hoped I would get out of listening to his 1992 poetry in 2023. So, as humans are wont to do, I'm going to twist his words and use them to express my own opinion - I think that springtime begins where the light gets in.

My rudimentary understanding of physics tells me that the white light reflecting off of the winter's snow contains a full spectrum of colors but, when reflected perfectly, our eyes perceive nothing but white. It's not until the first cracks open in winter's snowy façade that light gets a chance to express itself in new ways. It's those first cracks that warm the soil and wake up the colorful world sleeping below. Those first cracks make way for the early Balsamroot and Buttercup to bloom and for the green waves to rise up from the valley floor as the world starts bursting with colorful chaos. Happy Spring!

-Bridger Layton