Spring!

"I believe in process. I believe in four seasons. I believe that winter's tough, but spring's coming. I believe that there's a growing season. And I think that you realize that in life, you grow. You get better."

The guy who wrote/said that quote is a Republican lobbyist and career politician. Quite the nauseating combination I must say. But I like this moment of rare homespun clarity on his part.

I also like springtime.

Here it is only February 12, and I am hoping against hope for an early spring. Why? I suppose I could write something syrupy and saccharine about new beginnings, so I think I'll go ahead and do just that.

Yes, spring is about new beginnings and rebirth. And that sounds very attractive to me right about now. On a sheer practical level, I'm quite tired of the cold, as my toes have been frozen since around mid-December. Granted, this has been a bit of a bipolar winter all around--Mother Nature has adopted the general insanity of our times. Nevertheless, the bursts of teasing warmth have not truly succeeded in thawing my lower extremities. And yes, I double up my socks and my (admittedly rancid) slippers have been glued to my feet for three months now. 

Anyhoo, there is also the desire for a new beginning in the mystical/emotional sense--an itching to re-center and flush out personal offal. Spring is the natural period in which to engage in this process. Winter is at best a time of cozy reflection and at worst a hellish period of festering animosities and frostbit toes. But the first whiff of springtime air reminds people like me that there is more to life than pensive naval gazing.   

As a culture and society, we have grown largely tone deaf to the rhythms of the natural world. The constant drone of modern life has put us on a treadmill of mindless routines the whole year round. Seasons are marked by holidays, vacation times, and school functions, rather than the changing face of nature, culminating in the equinoxes and solstices. We were once an integral part of this natural cycle; of the new birth and growth of spring, of the labor of summer, the rewards of autumn, and the quiet death of winter. 

In a spirit sense, we are as much a part of this rhythmic dance as ever before, yet we have dulled this deep and mystical connectedness through an ascendance of the material and the greed that goes with it. Nature gives us an opportunity to maintain both physical and mental balance through following her rhythms. Yet we stubbornly cling to our own clumsy methods of self help. 

But this year, I'm taking the cue from the natural world and indulging in everything spring has to offer. So it can't arrive soon enough. Here's to rebirth and new growth!