tuning up with spring

Spring! were everything is muddlishously wonderful; were the songs of the birds, burst forth joy from the constriction of winter's freeze; were the young's fancy turns to thoughts of love; were all of Nature is being released to follow endless possibilities.


The Cherokee Indians have a ritual initiated in correspondence with the Spring Equinox. They go to a river and there scoop up some of the river's water with their hand, turn their back to the river and throw the scooped water over their shoulder, doing this seven times. With each throw releasing what should have been, would have been, could have been; forgiving any past transgressions caused by themselves or others, and detaching from focusing on future outcomes. In this way they release themselves from attachments of the past and the future while aligning themselves with the present, and with the powerful influence of the awakening and rebirthing elements of Spring.


We too are caught up in this current of Spring. On that first day, when the temperature rises to the 50's, and Father Sun is high enough in the sky to feel His warmth, every mother's child leaves the protection of their home and begins to scurry about: walking, biking, playing games, washing their cars, cleaning up their yards, shopping, etc. Its like everybody heard a cosmic alarm clock at the same time, and instantly understood that it was time to leave the house. Whether we are consciously aware of our reactions to Spring or not, we are essentially tied to its rhythm, and upon its call, invariably celebrate its arrival.


Although we instinctively react to the call of Spring, we can depress our reaction by becoming distracted by the "getting and spending" of our daily lives. The poet, William Wordsworth, admonishes us in his poem, The World is to Much With Us:

The world is to mush with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours,
We have given our hearts away, a sorted boon!
...For this, for everything we are out of tune;..

There is a cyclical rhythm to our lives, one which has little to do with an eight hour work day and a forty hour work week. This life rhythm is found in the recognition of the beat of the seasons moving around the year. As the rhythm of the season resonate, we are meant to join in, blending our heart beat to the pulse of the cosmos in a sacred dance. We dance to the pulse and live by the heart beat, and in this sacred manner we find and accept our place in the harmony of it all.

Happy Spring, every body.