equinox arrival

Spring is as much a time of pain as of growth. Imagine the egg, the bulb, the bud. All begin contained -- all potential, endless promise. There is no strain, no disturbance by passion or power. But when growth begins, things break. Shells and bud casings, those intact perfections, fall away. What is revealed is unprotected tenderness...
- Patricia Monaghan

I love this quote because it reminds us that the spring season, no matter how much we may long for it, is not always an easy or graceful transition. Like snow storms in March and April, the arrival of spring is often messy and chaotic, often an encapsulation of perplexing extremes.

Being a spring-born creature I often feel this transitional intensely. This year, especially, I do. I feel the tension of the season, as if I want to both hibernate deeply, continuing an inward-looking slumber AND I want to burst into action, into new life, creating movement and change and embrace all the new-sprung possibilities of life. Larken Bunce, a wise and thoughtful herbalist and poetical writer, captures this feeling well. She writes:

There’s early Spring in a nutshell: the dynamic tension between moving ahead into expansive, decisive action and staying wrapped up tight in rest and unknowing, between rest and productivity, solitude and community. You’ve probably noticed that you lean one way or the other, towards wanting Spring to hurry up and arrive in earnest and wishing Winter would stay a bit longer. And since the seasons acquiesce to no one, you might notice that either way you lean, you are not satisfied.

So noticing that I may be dissatisfied with how the energy of the season unfolds - how things seem to start and stop and not move quickly or smoothly enough -  I just have to remember to let go of my sense of timing. To trust in the natural unfolding of life's energies, to trust that the arrival of all good things, like the Spring, is only when the time is right.

May your spring season unfold, in all its beauty and mystery, in perfect timing.