Spring truly is just around the corner.  You won’t know it here in the Midwest.  Rain yesterday and much cooler temperatures today.  But Harold said he heard a robin early this morning - so Spring is surely about here.

What is so important or desired about “Spring”?  From a spiritual viewpoint, Spring is the metaphor for metamorphesis (dictionary’s out of reach!).  Change & rebirth.  The move of the earth and nature from a dormant ‘death-like’ state to a burst of LIFE!

Ah, just writing it sends shivers of delight down my arms and across my brain! 

It used to be that I waited with baited breath for the first seed catalogs to arrive in January.  I eagerly leafed through the pages, dreaming of what I would plant this season.  And then there are the endless magazines that feature “Spring” projects.  You know, the ‘fixer-upper’ that throws dull & dingy out.  Fresh new linens & lighter, airier drapes, etc.

There’s nothing like new life and rebirth to invigorate us.  Perk us up and give us a sense of ‘youth’ and ‘vigor’.

There is of course, Easter and all it means that has nothing to do with bunnies, candy & hidden eggs!  The celebration of life, death and resurrection is the rhythm of life as we know it. 

We don’t need to be a spiritual ‘giant’ to recognize the analogy that Jesus’ sacrificial act on Friday and his awesome ‘rolled-away’ stone on “the first day of the week”, has to life as we know it on the earth. 

God, in His infinite power & wisdom, gave us an annual reminder that death is not final.  Winter is not the end.  Snow melts under the warmth of Spring sun and warm breezes.

And the lillies will peek through the ground regardless.  The sleepy evergreens and hosta’s perk up with the first hint of a temperature change.  And so do we!

Already, I’m longing to thrust my garden tools deep into the soil, turning it to watch the worms scamper across the dirt.  I can taste the hint of Spring in the air.  And I can feel it in my bones - in fact throughout my entire body.

As much as I have come to loathe winter, I’m not sad that I live where the seasons change as something to look forward to.  For without Winter, how could we enjoy Spring.

Whatever the weather or temperature where you are, my encouragement for the day is to sniff the air and smell the change of season that is hidden just behind a sleeping rose bush!

And enjoy those you love!

Linda