Spring 2025 • By NM
Providence & Limits & Spring

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Providence is another name for the kindness of God. If we could realize how wise the providence around us is, it would give us immense confidence on our journey. The irony is that we don't need to worry. We can take a lot more risks than we realize. It is interesting to ask: What are the limits you have set for your life? … If you were to go beyond your most solidly set limits, what difference would it make to your life?

—John O’Donohue

John O’Donohue is an Orein Arts fan favorite; his wisdom seemed like a good field to stand in for a first note. Here he asks a question that comes up often in many contexts, but especially in the creative life. Basically: what would it be like to be more free? How do I get out of my own way?

The spring is a great time to ask these questions, to reexamine limits. Spring comes to remove the limits winter has set; nature is showing how these kinds of things are done. The answer? Providence. The blinding white magnolia outside the window doesn’t worry about spring; it does spring. Receives the spring-ing. It blossoms with confidence, which is a real risk (the wind, rain, frost) it doesn't calculate. It is fully given to the ‘kindness of God’ as O’Donohue says. It can’t not be; the whole thing is Spring's idea, not the magnolia’s.

Magnolia, show me how to try it. That idea, that wisdom, that kindness that also includes the winter that has just passed. And Easter to come. (Speaking of limits)︎