(not necessarily in that order)
As we draw closer to the first day of Spring, I can feel things…well, speeding up isn’t quite right. Neither is heating up. I guess quickening is the closest I can get in words.
It’s the sense that more and more is happening beneath the surface, getting ready to flow forth in a great bubbling flow of creativity and expression and newness.
It’s a hopeful, expansive feeling.
I love Spring!
On my walk the other day I started to rejoice at the daffodils and the blossoms on the fruit trees and the increased bird song. Then right afterwards I caught myself fretting about how we didn’t get enough rain yet and what about fire season and so on and so forth.
I was shocked to realize that for the first time in my life I was denying myself the joys and pleasures of spring, for fear of what the future might hold.
Well, I immediately got a hold of myself with a strong reminder that there is only this present moment. The truth is, none of us is even guaranteed a future, so why waste NOW!
Jesus put it pretty well…
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
–Matthew 6:34
The other day I was reflecting on how this was the year of the “lost spring.” I couldn’t really tune in and enjoy the season the way I usually do (too many distractions!). Now we’re almost at the Solstice, but it feels important to reclaim Spring first.
So I decided to share this fun and lively song by Swami Kriyananda. It’s one of his Shakespeare songs, and I love it because it makes me feel happy and it makes me think of Spring!
It Was a Lover and His Lass
by Swami Kriyananda
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green corn field did pass,
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crowned with the prime
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
Many years ago I was part of a spiritually focused women’s group; we called ourselves WINGS (Women Inspired to Nurture and Grow Spiritually). It was a key factor that catapulted me fully onto the spiritual path.
We were a small group, just the four of us meeting monthly in the San Francisco Bay Area. We bonded deeply and are still close (in spirit, though we live far apart) over thirty years later.
So what made me think of WINGS today? It was seeing the image above and remembering how — thanks to my friend, Hanna — we celebrated the ancient Celtic spring festival of Imbolc.
Imbolc is the time when the first stirrings of spring are felt. It is “the promise of renewal, of hidden potential, of earth awakening and life-force stirring.”
I’ve recently been feeling an awareness of that here in the rural community where I live. I can see the barest hint of buds and of plants just beginning to push up through the ground. And even though it’s still cold and the days are still pretty short, you can sense the pulse of the earth picking up and feel the increasing hope that spring really is on its way.
I think we’re beginning to feel it in our lives as well. I’m beginning to sense that the projects that have sometimes seemed like nothing’s happening…that there’s nothing to show for all the work…that it’s taking too long…that those very projects are beginning to quicken. That the growth is happening, even though it’s not showing yet. There’s a rightness to the process that is as old as time and this reassures me and I feel hopeful again.
You can read more about Imbolc here.