Spring Has Sprung
Feb 05, 2021
If you check your calendar, you’ll see March 20th marked as the first day of spring. From any practical point of view, that’s wrong! Spring has already arrived.
It’s easiest to understand this calendar conundrum with Summer, which "starts" on June 21, the longest day of the year, and with Winter, which "starts" on December 21st, the longest night of the year. In some countries, these days are called MidSummer and MidWinter - because they are the MIDDLE of the season, not the start.
By this same logic, March 20th is MidSpring. Right about now, likely you're noticing that the days are indeed getting longer, as we move away from the long nights of winter (unless of course, you live near the equator). In the Bay Area, the spring bloom is underway. There is a quickening in the air.
Why go on about this? It is more than semantics. Chinese Medicine assumes that humans are not separate from the cycles and rhythms of the natural world. The more you can attune your life to those cycles, the easier it is for your body, mind and spirit to find and maintain its own balance and harmony.
Spring is a time of new possibilities, initiation, renewal, and moving from contemplation to action. Not the heady power action of Summer, but like the tender shoots of grass and the buds on the trees, this is a great time to start something...that project that has been “asking” to be realized, or that new habit that your body has been asking for, or…?!?
And, of course, this year we greet Spring with the sense of hope that the COVID-19 vaccine brings. The process demands our patience - you can’t make the grass grow faster. Despite the challenges and snafus, the vaccine rollout is happening and bringing with it the possibility of change.
Renewal. Hope. Possibilities. What does Spring hold for you?