SPRING.

Azure bluets, aka Quaker Ladies

Greetings from my favorite time of spring.

We’re past the crazy-making early spring — the ratchety time of coming out of hibernation into the thaw of the season, a transition that can feel disconcerting. And here we stand in a season filled with many kindnesses from Mother Nature, to revive us after a long winter’s sleep.

One of the great losses of modern life is how disconnected we’ve become from the seasons as a way of orienting ourselves. The rhythms of nature have guided humanity since the beginning. The length of the day, the stage of the moon, the activities of animals, the availability of food — these were once how we understood where we were in the great cycle of life and how to move in relationship to time.

Nature is constantly showing us where we are and offering cues for how to orient ourselves. If we pay attention, the Earth gives us a map. And a map can make all the difference in a journey.

“ When it’s still cold and we haven’t fully let down our winter guard, look at the trees that are positively dripping in blossoms of celebration”

This year’s cold, slow New England spring is highlighting the steps of transformation in a way that feels easy to track. In a time when the collective energy is so fast and full, there has been something soothing about the slow unfolding of a season that is usually in a hurry.

This chilly spring we have actually been able to watch the dreaming unfold— we can practically watch the grass green and the buds slowly open. Mother Earth has been revealing to us, step by step, how she brings into form that which she has been dreaming into being all winter.

Let us acknowledge the utter flamboyance of blossoming trees. When it’s still cold and we haven’t fully let down our winter guard, look at the trees that are positively dripping in blossoms of celebration. Early flowering trees, like the magnolias, are our cheerleaders. They are ready to go before most of the rest, sometimes getting in trouble for jumping the gun. They model for us joy and resilience at a time when we may or may not feel it.

It’s a wonder that out of the deep winter hibernation, crocuses, tulips, and daffodils are eager to bring color back to our landscape. Forsythia has been incredible this year — her cheery yellow reflecting the light of the sun, in stark contrast to the many grey days of the past months. . The more subtle yellow of weeping willow blossoms has also been holding my heart these weeks.

In April, I had the chance to make an essence from an incredible, old willow at the Montague retreat center in western Mass. Incredible place, incredible tree, and a powerful essence.

Another spring delight is the spectacle of flowers popping up from leaf cover.  I mean come on.  How is it that in a few weeks, lily of the valley will be graciously emerging from the soggy, brown layer of leaves that fill my neighbor’s driveway.  My son and I pass the driveway on the way to the bus and it’s a mess. Brown, untended, and seemingly lifeless.  But from years past I know it will soon be filled with a dainty crop of lily of the valley.  Last week I did some investigating.  I dug under the leaf litter and guess what…organized, strong shoots are standing proud under there, pushing their way up slowly.  Once they do, as if by magic, last year’s dead leaves disappear and the newness of the season appears like a fresh start.

There is something deeply reassuring in this.

Nothing appears from nowhere.

Nature spends an entire season preparing what eventually bursts forth. Winter is not empty. It is gestation. It is dreaming. And spring is the visible unfolding of what has already been happening for a long time.

That’s what I want to remind us all.

We have each of us been doing good hard work in the quiet season of winter. We have taken to our hibernation in whatever ways we do. We have had the strength and fortitude to bear another season of cold and grey. We have traversed the season of our shadow and here we are at the gateway to Mother Earth’s fresh start.

She has been busy dreaming all winter and is now marching ahead in her yearly cycle of blossoming and fruition. She calls us forward with her.

This is a big time of movement, change, and forging ahead. Change can feel disconcerting. And yet, there is order to the madness, if we tune in.

The Earth teaches us this every year.

Things silently cultivate and then emerge when the time is right.

As in Nature, so with us.

We have been spinning our web, laying the foundation for our reality. Let nature model for you how to move forward with grace and joy. Let her cheer you on with her colors, birdsong, and changing light.

Be careful of the trap of stagnation. Surrendering to flow is the way forward, even if we’re not sure what lies ahead. Know that you are held in the beautiful order of the Divine. Do whatever helps you hear your directives. Nourish your body and care for your nervous system so you vibrate at as high a frequency as you can. Find stillness. Find movement. Take action steps when they are called for. And continue on your path of creating your masterpiece. You are a wonder.

Lily of the Valley

FOR A NEW BEGINNING

John O'Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the gray promises that sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.