“Our wishes foretell the capacities within ourselves; they are harbingers of what we shall be able to accomplish. What we can do and want to do is projected in our imagination, quite outside ourselves, and into the future. We are attracted to what is already ours, in secret. Thus passionate anticipation transforms what is already possible into
dreamt-for reality.” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
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“March goes out like a lamb,” so they say, and this season, I’ve been taking special notice. Three weeks ago, we sat perched in the balanced moment of the Vernal Equinox—equal parts light and dark—but it was only for a moment, and now we’ve tipped. Every day, the light lingers in the sky a bit longer, pushing sunset deeper into the evening. Buds on the trees are giving way to beautiful smelling blossoms, and tulip bulbs emerge sometimes not even bothering to wait for the ice to melt or the wind to soften.
.jpeg "Photo by Rev. Laura Mancuso")
At face value, the sacred text of Spring is a precious wash of gentle pastels and soft baby animals. Looking closer, I’m struck by the effort it took to get there. The trees, blown to and fro in wintry winds, force their branches into bud prematurely; the mother sheep are urged by caring farmhands into the freezing barn, where they drop their new lambs onto the cold hay; and the crocus poke their golden heads through the frozen soil with fierce determination. These acts demonstrate boldness beyond reason. Spring’s mantra is a combination of “Here goes nothin’,” and “Ready or not!!!!”
Eco-spirituality invites us continually to take our lessons from the Earth. This season I am suddenly struck that I have not given Spring the respect that she deserves. I am learning from her grit, and from her audacity to throw herself out there and build the season so the rest of us can show up for the party! March goes out like a lamb—ok, perhaps. Yet first comes a strong determined slog into the frozen air, and then a resilient hanging on, all the while trusting the sun to affirm this decision by increasing its stay each day.
The guileless conniptions of Spring remind us that resurrection will likely require midwifery and transformation, both of which are brave and messy.
This Earth lesson lends important understanding for our experience of “the future.” Spring instructs us to create our best vision and to move toward it with determined optimism. Margaret Wheatley, the organizational consultant, says it this way, “The future doesn’t take form irrationally, even though it feels that way. The future comes from where we are now. It materializes from the actions, values, and beliefs we’re practicing now.”
And so I ask: This season, where are you showing your boldness-beyond-reason? The future is within each of us now…and we are co-creating the fruits of our future through the very way we are living in this moment, right here and right now. We are preparing our resurrection, our liberation; manifesting the promise of summer—life at its fullest.
Wheatley goes on to say:
"We already know how to create a healthy, life-affirming future for all peoples…. If we are willing to open our hearts to what’s really going on….we will find the will and courage to do something. This is true in our individual lives, in our communities and organizations, in our nation-states.”
After a long winter and prolonged darkness, it is only right that we should desire warmth and light. Goethe proclaimed the hidden treasure of the equinox with his words, “Our wishes foretell the capacities within ourselves… We are attracted to what is already ours in secret.” In the first days of Spring, our True Nature is clearly revealed: we are Being, and we are Becoming.
That secret that attracts you is already inside you. It is yours to blossom, to tend, and to share its beauty unabashedly with our needing world.
May Spring bless you abundantly, and may you be bold beyond reason this season!
Amen!