The shadow side of spring
A quickie reminder to breathe
As we enter a new week, and life is…quite a ride (which I keep hearing from SO many friends!), I thought it might be helpful to send this reminder for those of us somewhat overwhelmed with the relentless pace of spring emergence.
Here’s something we don’t talk about much: the shadow side of spring. Oh, we love to extoll the virtues of the light returning, the leaves unfurling, the first flowers peeking… What we don’t talk about is how sudden is this upheaval, this change from the slow, frozen pace of winter.
The winds stir recklessly. The light returns rapidly. So much happening, so fast, all at once.
Around the equinoxes, unlike the solstices, change is SWIFT and DRAMATIC. Perhaps we don’t notice or mind this quite as much in the autumn because we are so full of summer’s vitality that we ride the waves of change that much easier, only noticing later in the fall the season of grief settling in…
But in the spring, we are roused, TORN from winter’s frozen slumber. For those who actually give themselves, even somewhat, to the surrender of winter, this tearing forth can be overwhelming, even exhausting.
So what can we do? We can remind ourselves that we are only beginning to regain our strength. We don’t have to accomplish everything all at once, and may only burn ourselves out prematurely if we try. We can take care to listen to our nervous system: when we notice it starting to fry, frazzle, spiral like the dust devils kicking up or the torrential currents of rain, we can remember to exhale, pause, notice where we are, touch earth, wait.
Why exhale? So that we hold fast to the deep earth of our root as the sun and the wind are pulling us up and out. No flower is going to bloom if it lets itself get torn out of the soil. So we exhale – apana, the dark, the grounding – to balance out the overwhelm of prana already rising and sparkling all around us.
Touch earth. Tend body. Love well. Perhaps this might even be enough.
Spring is just the beginning of the year. Let us not burn out before we even begin. (I say as I tryyyy to take my own medicine … and scurry to catch up with garden planting ;-)
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I need nothing more than a big inhale. But that’s part of the changeable nature of this season. So daily I tune into whatever is real and true, and endeavor to find that dancing equilibrium (equal balance) that can ironically be so hard to come by around and after the equinoxes (equal nights).
How are you working with the changeable, wild spring energy amidst such times?
Wishing you a graceful dance with these times…
Love, Ariana
p.s. Here’s a wee little poem that tumbled out as I scribbled, blurry-eyed before bed the other night:
Running myself raw
To bring back life
To begin again
To stir the soil
Tumbling in the torment
of new growth
Streeeeetching me
Oh holy wonder,
hang on for the ride!
Coming back to life
Together, let’s keep on…
Beautiful painting, sister!