This is the week – Spring has definitely arrived. Daffodils and jonquils have been holding on thru cold rainy days – and now they are standing proudly! The long line of ornamental plum trees around the corner are purple pink today. When the crescent moon appeared last night, with Jupiter shining close by, frogs and owls began to provide music – this morning owls and robins. Spring has arrived. Once more the gifts are given.
It has been four years (!) since the Spring of March 2020, when we shut down and entered into pandemic living. The human world began to feel more calamitous and fractious — and in many ways it still does. Nothing has simply reverted to the way it was before. Perhaps by now we realize that there are only constant opportunities to start over, to begin anew in a changed world, as always.
From time to time we consider the ‘art of embracing’, as a practice of turning toward and moving toward — moving in the direction of with arms opened wide. The question is “What are you willing and able to move toward for the good of all?” Everything we have been practicing will continue to help us – inner nobility and steadiness, naming our fears and counting our blessings at the same time, and the core strengths of courage and trust. Beginning today, every day, the way stretches out before us, and we can only take one step at a time. There are blessings that live in the very acts of reaching out, of moving toward, of opening our arms in anticipation.
Every day may we breathe in deeply and feel the calming power of an exhale, as we open our arms and begin again. Sending love to you all — Jill
