Balance has returned, we made it to the Equinox! And Day and Night have made peace with each other for a moment.
There were times I thought this might be the year the rain and gloom would win over, and it has felt like a long battle in my corner of the field. Looking out of my widow at the young-green willow being battered by a sudden rainfall it seems far from over.
Like everything in the observable universe, we know our home planet is in constant motion. The features of our weather & our living world respond with constant change, and our hearts respond with hope and fear. It’s as simple as that.
There is relief in the light and the return of colour. There is hope in the warmth of the sun reclaiming some ground from the creeping cold. Rising anticipation when you first notice the buds returning; indisputable evidence of life. The scale has tipped again towards birth and new vigour, as it promised it would.
To note something – anything! – that is reliably repetitious must be a human need as old as human culture, because we still need it now, to feel safe on our home planet, and part of the great turning wheel. Now, more than ever as we face the real likelihood that our weather will become more disordered and take us turning into the unknown.
What happens when we do mark the staging posts as we process through Earth time? When you let the grateful sigh be heard, as the sun finally kisses your face. When you bring home a sprig of blossom and say ‘thank you’ aloud. It is possible to feel less untethered, less alienated, less directionless. Psychologically, celebrating a time for the energy of newness, for wisely sowing what we will reap down the line, is incredibly empowering and personally, it is seeming ever more important as the years cycle on. We can do this at any time, of course, but its strongly supported now by the upward drive of the new seedlings. And that can help with the fear part – will it, won’t it? Am I up to it? There is some solidarity if you look for it.
It is the time for the element of Wood in the Five Element philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine. In the energy of Wood you envision your creations, and thrust upward using your resources to make visible what you only imagined before. You grow and transform, adapt and reach beyond, you even burst through obstacles with determined curiosity – all this begins with a seed as has always been the way. Your Wood power thrives on your openness, your curiosity, your clear-seeing and your constructive aggression. I am taking inspiration from the grace and the grit of the willow weathering the Spring storms outside my window. And now the sun and blue sky are back again, as promised.
When I work with a person, I know that the same forces that animate them, animate the whole of life and creation. So we can take inspiration and understanding from the cycles and the relationships between forces jostling and creating the world we see; the woods, fields and oceans. We let the world touch us and extend our appreciation back. This is healing for people and planet.