Thoughts on spring

The wheel of the year turned into a new season this past week. The equinox, a time of the day and night being perfectly equal, has come and gone. We are now shifting into a time of light. The days will steadily grow until it peaks at the summer solstice in June.

Spring is a season that is a bit polarizing. It seems people either love it or hate it with very little in between. There is a lot of beauty that comes with this time but also a lot of challenges. Growing up, I loved spring, but I’ve had a love/hate relationship since living in Colorado. Spring is often referred to as mud season in the mountains. It is the season when the run off from the snow melting in the high country soaks the ground as it makes its way down into the valleys. This turns almost all the hiking trails and dirt roads into a soupy and muddy mess.

To be honest, last year, my last spring in Colorado, was one of my favorites because I finally embraced the mud. I used to hate mud season because as soon as it got warm, I wanted to be hiking high up in the mountains. It pained me to have to wait the long weeks until the runoff finished and the trails dried. Last year it finally clicked, the mud has a purpose; to slow us down. As I’m finally in a place where mud season does not exist, I am finally understanding the teachings of mud.

If you have ever walked through thick mud, you know the lessons. Slow down, be mindful of your step, don’t try to rush and definitely do not try to jump over the puddles! But in all honesty, walking through mud is exactly what spring should feel like in the best and worst of ways.

Spring isn’t this immediate shift from cold to hot, it is a season of in-between. It is uncomfortable because it zigs and zags between all the extremes before gradually warming to summer. In a world that thrives on all or nothing, this slow transition between winter to summer feels exhaustingly long at times. There is a sort of discomfort that comes with the space of not quite done with one season and not quite into the next.

We often want to think of spring as this time of everything blooming and turning green. Which it can be, but more so, it is a time of awakening and preparation. What we often forget is that the slowest part of growth is usually the beginning. When a seed is planted, first it must spend energy in creating roots downward that will support and sustain it. Only once roots have been established, can a small sprout begin to work its way upward towards the sun. The effort it takes to grow those first few leaves that break the surface of the soil is immense. Once the surface has been breached, finally a plant can really begin to flourish. With the sun providing abundant energy, growth can finally occur with ease.

Spring is not the time of ease filled growth after the leaves break the surface. Spring is the arduous time of growing firm roots and working towards the surface of the soil. Yes, spring is a time of awakening and new beginnings, but the effort is high and the reward low. This mismatch of input and output can feel a bit exhausting. It is also invisible work, not seen from the surface, yet without it, the plant cannot survive.

The beauty of spring is this. The more work you put into growing your roots, the more expansive you can grow and the steadier your foundation will be. Everything that grows upward benefits from a solid set of roots established downward. Spring is a time of first tending to your roots. Focusing on your foundation to make the work to come that much easier.

Spring is not always a time of visible growth like we expect. It is as slow as every Sunday morning should be. A second cup of tea while making banana pancakes with a soothing Spotify playlist in the background kinda slow. This is how we should treat spring, with gentleness and love and always remembering pancakes are better with chocolate chips!

So perhaps it’s time to slow down, savor the unseen growth happening all around and within and act as if the road you are walking is muddy perfection.