SPRING EQUINOX

I begin counting down the days to Spring Equinox the day after Winter Solstice, my favorite day of the year.

We have more daylight hours each day even if we are unable to see it directly, just seconds, then minutes, then hours. Spring Equinox, a balance between light and dark, is finally here kicking the dark to the curb and we are privy to longer daylight and shorter darkness. Spring, to me, is a season so exciting that I revel in the giddy feeling to be alive.

I love waking up to the infant colors of pastels and green. Baby leaves are budding. Plants are curious to see the aftermath of the deep sleep of winter and begin poking their heads up through the warming earth to puruse the garden scene, what they missed, and what’s the same. Seed catalogs offer enticing pictures of possibilities to plant anew or fill in vacant spots. I am impatient to get outdoors and begin the clean up that I neglected to finish last Fall. After the long, dark winter nights I need the new fresh air, gentle warm sun that’s not blazing, light breezes, and new beginnings.

Spring is indeed exciting.

I love the tenderness of soft green and new birth. My three children were born in Spring as were several grandchildren, a time of multiple celebrations. Spring is also a good time for me to reacess self-examination and my own balance which certainly needs tweeking. What do I need to keep? What do I need to release? Am I a prisoner of others’ beliefs or do I strive for a yin/yang balance? I get to choose and strive for a balance honoring my light (outer) nature and dark (inner) nature. What better time to do that than Spring? However, in the long run, I honor and appreciate summer’s long days and Autumn’s drawing down and the deep contemplation of long Winter months that allows self healing until Spring once again gives birth to new beginnings. However much we yearn for longer daylight it is wise to remember that it was Carl Jung who reminded us that “without darkness we could not see the light of a candle flame.”