Greening – the arrival of spring

We are lucky in this country to have fairly marked seasons still and even as they change they have acted throughout time as really wonderful vessels for supporting people practically and with all kinds of existential questions. The cycle of the seasons gives us a rhythm by which we can make meaning, address life and death, connect with the ebb and flow, the rise and fall, the empty and the full, the fallow-time, Greening and harvest.

How hopeful it is to see and feel the dilute sun giving just a hint of it’s potential and a reminder to us of the heat to come with all it’s possibilities for growth, greening and blooming; and what more eloquent metaphor for personal growth is here than the bulb, and at this time of year especially, the small and courageous snowdrop? Working hard harnessing energy in the long darkness and with unceasing determination insisting on pushing through the hard ground, the snowdrop dares the cold world to finally see it’s beauty and it does so with complete consistency every year, what an example for us to learn from.

And so as we emerge from this sudden snowy snap and stand on the threshold of another Spring season we have an opportunity once again to consider our own Greening, what energy are we bringing to our emergence, what threshold do we each stand at in our lives and what can we internally tend and nurture into growth from the darkness? May we be as determined as the snowdrop to flourish despite the conditions we have perhaps found ourselves in during our lives and dare to be seen above ground anyway.