It is the Spring Equinox – not Christmas, not Easter, but the promise of spring – that should delight our souls. It should be, not presents beautifully wrapped in shiny paper and ribbon, stacked beneath an artificial tree, but the tiny heads of crocus poking their heads out of the snow, that cause us to sing with joy. It is the Equinox, and not the Solstice nor its modern equivalent, that should be celebrated. Instead of going about business as usual, should not the Spring Equinox be the cause for the greatest celebration of the year? I propose that this day, that heralds spring and the return of life, should be pronounced a sacred holiday. Work and school should be forbidden as we acknowledge the birth and awakening of new life. Tiny insects emerge to feed on the nectar of early spring flowers. Birds are preparing to mate. We are reminded that new life always comes forth from the detritus.
Even the least awakened among us, cannot ignore the message of spring. The sight of a flower unfurling from its bud, a baby animal being born, a tree bursting into bloom overnight, and the warmth of the sun as it melts the last remnants of snow cannot help but tug at the heartstrings of the most hardened heart. The signs of spring remind us that regardless of what we have done in the past, or what has been done to us, life is ever changing. There lies a seed within all our hearts that knows it is a part of everything. It knows that we are here only to love – and to be loved. It too, is attempting to push through the rocks and debris of our ego, to reach beyond those places where we have closed our heart, to finally emerge, awakened, into a new spring.
