Snowy Peaks
There is a lot to love about spring, but … Its erratic nature can be difficult to navigate, the way it booms into being and then retreats again, stopping and starting with great force. The transition from the restful contraction of winter is anything but gentle, and I’ve learned to acutely care for myself in this temperamental time of year. … As spring returns, I always remind myself that just as the plants are unhurried to emerge, I must be as well. Jacqueline Suskin (A Year in Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression)
I feel this push-pull of the season today as it’s a day on which several activities have converged. More active than usual for a blog day yet fitting after a couple of days of clouds, cold blustery winds, and a dusting of snow, the day dawns clear and promises warming temperatures.
So today I ‘spring’ into action, just a bit. Yet after a relatively mild, dry winter and one with a bit more activity than planned, I’ve felt especially blessed by the thick blanket of snow that fell a few days after the equinox and the cold accompanying it. I easily slipped into the introspection that I love in winter. Quiet, deep, mindful presence.
It’s not quite time to do the final cleaning of the wood stove and store the other accoutrements of winter. Today it’s spring. Tomorrow or the next winter may return. I appreciate Suskin’s reflections on the season and on navigating its challenges for they deepen my awareness of the seesaw nature of this transition.
Despite this day’s activities, I’m not quite ready to ‘spring’ into the action that we so often think of in this season. I want to allow spring to gently emerge in me. To follow Nature’s lead. Observing a few tiny green shoots of grass emerging from the ground on the trail and the tip of an iris leaf rising out of the moist earth. ‘Springing’ into action will come in its time, but not just yet.
Seeded at the Winter Solstice and gestating through the introspection of winter, the soil of soul is warming. Dormant projects, hints and possibilities, plans, new ideas and conversations rest just below the surface, not to be rushed. Everything in its time. Divine perfect time.
For now, letting winter linger suits me. Emergence. I feel her gentle presence … and leave you this day with Jacqueline Suskin’s reflections on just that.
Emergence
By Jacqueline Suskin
All rises from the soil, from seed and darkness.
All aims on high toward newest light.
We follow the extensive reach, expanding from our
hidden realms of quiet contemplation.
All growth is steady, cautious, and willing to wait until
frost is put to rest in the past.
We too must let the ebb and flow guide us
in our becoming, still silent while we can be.
Which blossom will be the first to open?
What color will strike the landscape with its fervent gift?
What is our direction in this revival of brightness?
Fortified with deep roots and nutrients, we ask
the sun to provide us with a path.
Reaching toward its vivid voice with our measured
and beautiful offerings, it gives us its timely kiss.
Suddenly exposed, we are fresh again
in form, revealed to the elements, not quite ripe
but on our way to fruition.
Emergence is from Suskin’s A Year in Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression and you can find more about her work here.
Good Morning Sunshine!