Season by Season

There can be no doubt that winter is on its way out and that spring is here to stay. Even for those in the more northerly regions, I’m sure that there is a sense that the world is heading in one direction – and that direction is towards warmth and light. Occasional snow showers be damned.

Wintering Insects Awake (March 5 -20) always seems like the time of year when everything shakes from its dozing. We have been gradually stirring from our winter slumber since February, our eyes peeping open as we become accustomed to the light, and by mid-March, the world is truly roused (compelled!) to action.

Never have I felt grateful for the arrival of “Snow Becomes Rain” in quite this way before. This season of the lunisolar calendar nudges us to remember the fluidity of warmer days, when the strong frigid grip lessens, and we feel a bit more looseness in the atmosphere. With each raindrop, we feel moisture return, lessening the cruelness of the dry cold.

By the solar calendar’s reckoning, spring begins around February 4th. Some may find this preposterous. How can it be that spring begins in such cold, dark days? Yet, everything must begin somewhere. Even the mighty river must form from a trickle. February is that trickle. Perhaps, even that droplet.