When the hamster wheel effect is reassuring

Spring's promise, originally uploaded by scrollwork.

I took this photo of our plum tree a week short of one year ago. The tree looks like this again, save for the morning fog that hasn't burned off yet. There's something reassuring about cycles, seasons, phases, and coming full circle. If we mess up or miss out, there's always next season to make up for it. The forgiving nature of nature.


Maybe that's why hamsters are perfectly content to run on their little wheels without ever seeming to get anywhere. Maybe they see something in that wheel we don't, in the way it comes around at them, reliable as always. We're all hamsters on the globe anyway.


On the other hand, there's something aggravating about the phrase "It's that time of year again" — aaaurrggghh! Cliché overload. Particularly when said in the same breath as tax season, holidays, or gutter maintenance.


Are you a creature who finds comfort in routine? What is the routine that grounds you best? Or are you the restless soul who strikes out in search of something novel when things become too familiar?


P.S. Like clockwork, a week after I published this post, here it is in full bee-magnet mode.