A non-exhaustive list of reasons to be late to school on a spring morning:

Stopping to pick up the worms who ventured on to the road during the rain

Stopping to listen to the trrrrrrrrril of an enthusiastic black-eyed junco

Stopping to check the bird nests in the still-naked tree branches

Stopping to pet a friendly dog

I am torn between my irrational fear of being late and the guilt I feel every time I urge my kids to hurry. Is being on time to school really that important, when the spring is coming and the front- yards explode in colour and we are learning to recognise birdsong?

On my way back, I come to a realization that I’ve managed to walk my kids to school every day of this week. Quite an achievement for a more-than-fulltime working mother. The week’s been long and overwhelming, as usual, but I feel well. Maybe, I tell myself, looking at the twisted and wrinkled bodies of the trees that look like they are dancing with their many limbs lifted to the sky, maybe the reason is looking at these trees every morning.

My little town has so many trees. Trees dominate streets and yards, they tower over one-storey bungalows built mainly in the 60s and the 70s and large houses with wide drive-ways and two-door garages built in the 2000s. The trees trump them all. The trees are the reason I moved to this town. Three tall maples in the front yard, two in the back, an large fir just to the right, in our neighbour’s yard and her twin across the street and finally the poplar tree right outside of our fence – an enormous monument of a tree, a home to many generations of squirrels and kinds of birds, a world in herself.

I tell myself, it’s those trees that make me alright when things are not alright, that keep me grounded when the world spins too fast. These trees are medicine. They make me feel safe. They make me feel whole.

A few years ago, I have heard or read in some book about an app that gives you an option to calculate a route according to what’s good for you. Instead of offering the fastest itinerary, it will offer you options that goes through the park, or passes by the greenest streets, or will just offer you a different route every day to keep your attention and imagination engaged. It felt like a good idea when I first heard about it and it feels even better now.

Nest week I will spend three days in the jungle of Montreal. I will try to notice how it influences my mood and my energy level, but also try to find way to take my daily medicine.