Happy Spring Equinox fellow earthlings!
May your skin be soaked in sunshine and your hands be covered in dirt.
This article is an invitation to awaken to the subtle softening and unraveling of spring. To open to the opportunity for reverence and intentional awareness of our ecological and cyclical nature.
With love,
from my heart, to yours.
Honouring the Vulnerability and Softness of Spring
In almost every sense we (as in Mother Earth and us humans) are undergoing a suave and smooth transformation. An unraveling. As we begin to awaken from a long winter’s slumber, releasing the weight of a colder and quieter season. The anticipation of the arrival of spring may have us feeling a sense of openness that welcomes us to move forward towards the light and to do so with a thoughtful and intentional presence. Within us, we may recognize this shedding to be in the form of layers of clothing and coming out of the inward hibernation that winter invites. Surrounding us, we see the Earth shedding and melting away the blankets of heavy snow and opening herself up to the warmth and illumination of the Sun and his life-giving energies. Within this shedding and opening, there is a vulnerability and nakedness that is occurring. Now is a time to honour the softening of Mother Earth’s soil as well as the soil of our souls to set the foundations in order to grow — letting go of the denser frequencies within and without so we can make space for the abundance and growth that is to come.
Planting Seeds... In more ways than one.
The beginning-ness of Spring offers an opportunity to sow seeds in more ways than one… In addition to preparing our gardens, greenhouses and seedlings (and bodies) for this next cycle, we are gifted the opportunity to plant intentions. We are invited by the fertile soils, the nourishing rains and the warmth of the Sun to orientate our focus to bringing forth the energies that we require to stand firmly in our fullest potential and to exist from that space.
The act of surrendering old energies to create space for the new is the initiatory step to growth and inner evolution, but we must remember to also remain open for the fresh energies to emerge. Which is not always an easy feat... This is where we can look to Nature for guidance. We can practice embracing this sense of vulnerability and tenderness that graces the arrival of spring; being carried by warmer winds and brighter days which can encourage us to hold a soft sense of protection and nurturance for the tiny seeds that are vulnerable beneath dark soil during their germination. Because, just like those seedlings, we too require nurturing within this space where we are gently emerging from the inward transformation and into a new state of growth.
Some questions that we may ask ourselves at this time:
What am I willing to let go of?
What am I opening up to?
What aspects of myself are ready to bloom into the world?
In what ways can I nourish myself?
The Awakening of Opportunity and Possibility
Today, as I walk into the thickness of the stillness of the woodlands here in the Rocky Mountains, the forest seems to have embraced a new melody. Previously dense with a quietude that soaked my limbs in a serenity, welcoming my shivering bones to finally settle into their sockets. Now a fresh and looming warmth spirals around brave trunks and the larch’s naked limbs. A dewy aroma implying the arousal of spring... the trees now shedding the heaviness and silence of the winter’s weight on their shoulders. Their newly liberated limbs reaching towards the light as the snow melts off the tips of their fingers — dripping and crashing to the forest floor where the Earth is opening herself up. We too, can sense the delight to quench our thirst at the hands of the Sun and the shapeshifting of seasons.
This gentle transitionary time is a beautiful opportunity to extend gratitude for the restoration that the winter’s dark womb brings, as we sense the inevitable awakening and blooming of spring. To give thanks for the time of integration, the lessons and the succulent slowness that we were offered during the winter season. This way, we may move forward into this next seasonal cycle with a cleansed and grateful heart, open to the possibility of newness to emerge from the depths of our beings so one day we may reap what we have sown and harvest the fruits of our love.
The Magic and Medicine of Regeneration
Although nothing truly dies in Nature, spring does bring about a tangible experience of vitality and life compared to the quietude of winter, where activity is slower and beneath the surface. We see new life emerging everywhere, from the fresh tips on the fir trees, geese making their way back home, and all of the onion and lavender seedlings thriving towards the Sun. We hear the various melodies of birdsong among the treetops where silence once hung, and we smell the aroma of pine sap beginning to ooze to the surface of their bark.
It is important to note that the potentiality of this new growth would not be possible without the offering of what has come before. In a garden this regeneration is witnessed most tangibly via compost — last year's pea shoots, buckwheat stems and oat straw have been broken down and mixed all winter to become a vibrant heap of nutrients for this year's crops. This regenerative re-cycling shows us the opportunity of letting go of what has served its purpose and to utilize the breakdown of this ‘death’ to fuel what is to come, what is to be birthed and brought to life. This is one simple example of the cyclical and ecological spiral of our evolution... Nothing is obsolete, all is simply and medicinally transformed.
"We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present and future mingle and pull us backward, forward or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells and constellations." ~ Anaïs Nin
A Ripening Inner Revolution
Amongst the landscapes of the gardens and meadows and grasslands, there is a sacred sense of vacancy.
As I walk along the rows of dormant strawberries and hibernating garlic, the crunch of fallen pinecones and the last remnants of snow beneath dirt covered boots treading where bare feet will soon dance again, a sense of joy and optimism is awakened within me. At first glance, the garden plots may appear bare and empty but if we take a moment to truly perceive the state of the Land, we can sense the vast possibilities that await. Those rows of desolate dirt and rotten leaves will soon be transformed into an environment bustling and blooming with calendula, cabbage, butterflies, tomatoes, honeybees, pumpkin, wildflowers, and bushes heavy with berries.
This vastness and possibility parallels the landscape of our inner gardens as well. As the veils are thinning and the stale systems are cracking and crumbling —as we recalibrate as a collective culture, we are ecologically and energetically supported at this time to embrace the opportunity to create the landscape that we desire for ourselves and the collective. The world we dream of lays at our fingertips. But we must get clear enough to make a choice of which seeds we need to plant, and to be willing to tend to, water, and nurture those seeds of potential... We need to be willing to get grounded in the Earth, in ourselves, our values and in our communities. Now is the time to ask ourselves: What kind of world do we dream to create? And how are we going to show up in that world?
The next step is to take action and plant those seeds.
With love
from my heart to yours,
Happy planting & blessed blooming, my friends!
