A time or season of growth or development. Specifically the season between winter and summer comprising in the northern hemisphere usually the months of March, April, and May or as reckoned astronomically extending from the March equinox to the June solstice.
Spring has properly sprung or so we are led to believe by its definition. Is it a date on the calendar? Is it the lighter evenings? Is it the shops being full of Easter treats? The trees in bud? How do we know Spring has sprung?
I decided to give this a little more thought, to go inward and explore the cues that let me know we have toppled into a new season.
I like to think of it as observing my inner compass. An incredibly clever mechanism that is constantly reorienting me from the inside out and the outside in. Through the seasons of weather, the cycles of aging, through my fluctuating hormones, my ever-changing emotions, the lunar and astrological passages of time and the rhythms of the day. It is an awe-inspiring, incredibly intricate piece of kit that is all mine. But also it is the core of every sentient being that lives on the earth.
If I reflect on my response to the current slide into Spring, I feel it inside me as unexpected spikes of joy, I feel it as a slightly more relaxed breath, a release of the tension I’ve been holding all winter, an untethered sense of hope and possibility. As I delve into what my personal compass takes its cues from, it becomes all about a renewed connection to the natural world.
I revel in the blackthorn blossom (most of it seems to be covering the Essex roadsides!), feel my heart swell as the grand magnolias insist on taking my breath away. But the most impactful cue is walking home at dusk and tuning into the birdsong, especially the blackbirds and the tiny robins and wrens. While the trees are still bare with as yet, no leaves to mask the purest sounds that emanate from those little puffed chests, it brings me to tears and makes me want to throw myself on the ground and thank the Earth, with a sense of gratitude so deep, I know I would live a better life if I could just hold onto that feeling.
I think of birdsong as the perfect meditation tool. When you tune into a different sense to experience the world, you allow your unconscious to engage through a different portal and sometimes this new space allows you to recognise, consider and contemplate something that needs to have some airtime. My sister-in-law introduced me to the ‘merlin bird id’ app and it is quite incredible how many of our winged friends are chatting right outside your door! Why not take a moment to tune in.
So for me Spring is a reconnection practice. Making time to notice the growth and expansion it insists on takes me out of the incubation and introspection of winter and flings me happily back out into the world where nature is dancing and singing and inviting me to join in.
Wishing you a lovely sunny April, full of tea, chocolate and joy and we look forward to talking to you again in May
Anne and Ric x