Spring is coming, and it's complicated
The days are longer, and the crocuses are blooming here in the Pacific Northwest. Spring is coming soon, like really soon. The spring equinox is this Saturday, March 20. It arrives on the waxing quarter moon, as the moon turns towards full, gaining energy and wholeness.
I would love to wax poetic with you about spring. To talk about the baby ducks, the adorable wildflowers, and going outside on warmer days. These things are all ridiculously glorious to me. I LOVE the spring.
AND, I also kind of hate it. A few weeks ago I saw the very first sign of spring. There was a new flower bud on a plant in the driveway. When I saw it, I thought I should be filled with joy. Look! A flower bud! Instead, the emotion that came to me was not joy but fear.
Oh shit. Spring is coming. I need to start drinking bucket loads of nettle leaf tea and local honey NOW.
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In early spring I get horrible seasonal allergies. Sinus headaches, red and itchy eyes, stuffy nose, post-nasal drip, clogged throat, exhaustion, and puffy dark circles under my eyes.
Spring, the time of year that's all about joyous beauty arising from the earth and Beltane and May poles and wonder, hits me like a ton of bricks. It's painful, exhausting, and completely disrupting.
I do everything I can to prepare. I take natural remedies, like nettle leaf tea and local honey, and I happily take the over-the-counter stuff too. But all of this just barely takes the edge off.
There are times of year that are filled with magic. And you love the magic. And the over-culture loves the magic. AND it can still be a challenging time of year for you.
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Spring is one of those times for me, at least physically. I want to be outside, talking to the trees and dancing with flowers, but there's always this other thing about it that just sucks.
Marking the seasons can be complicated.
Hard anniversaries pass. Greifs are remembered. There are times when you're "supposed" to be happy, yet you get a vague sense of sadness that just won't go away.
We bring all of ourselves to the seasons, and I think the best question to ask isn't how to make the "bad" feelings go away but how do we love our whole selves.
How do I love the part of me that hates spring AND the part of me that loves spring? And how can I bring all of me into this season of new birth, new life, and new creation?
I'll be talking about spring more over the next week, and I want you to know from the get-go that I honor your Wildly Authentic, possibly complicated, relationship to spring and to every season.
xoxo,
Emma
P.S. Share this letter with someone you know who could use understanding during those complicated happy / sad times of year.