Spring, impending!

 Perhaps we’ve acted prematurely, overly optimistically, but the winter parkas and heaviest coats have been returned to the closet. It’s not that we think we won’t see snow or cold again until late this year, it’s that a week’s worth of consistent thawing and melting has made us willing to take a chance that spring may actually arrivve close to on time and last for more than a week or so this year.

Tomorrow, as all of us in the Northern Hemisphere know, is the Vernal Equinox. Locally, it happens at 10:33 am CDT. But we also know that each  season is a series of progressions that precede and follow specific moments in time. Can you see much difference between the two photos below? They’re of the pond a little north of our property. The one on the left (top) was taken last Thursday. The one on the right (bottom), this morning. Thursday was partly cloudy. Today was sunny. Other than that, is the difference in open water between the two noticeable?

March 17, 2022

Photo by J. Harrington

March 19, 2022

Photo by J. Harrington

There looks to me to be slightly more open water today, but not an overwhelming amount, unlike the ice and snow disappearing from our driveway. Sometimes natures transitions can be abrupt. More often, they’re gradual and slow. Humans list sunsets and sunrises as specific times, but light grows and fades during dawns and dusk. Remember, the universe, and the earth, function organically. It’s for our convenience that we impose mechanistic frameworks on days, weeks, months and seasons. The Celts observe two seasons, winter and summer.

The Celtic year was divided into two halves, the dark and the light. Samhain was the beginning of the dark half, with its counterpart, Beltane beginning the light half. Between these two 'doors' or portals fell Imbolc, on February 1, and Lughnasadh or Lammas, celebrated on August 1, quartering the Celtic year. These quarters were again divided by the solstices and equinoxes, which were known as the four Albans.

Minnesotans jokingly refer to our two annual seasons as winter and road construction. To reinforce our assessment of how basically arbitrary much of our time and date frameworks are, remember that this week past the US Senate approved, by unanimous consent, legislation that would make daylight savings time permanent. Those with their wits about them, particularly in the medical profession, believe the Senate got it bass-ackwards. Shocking, I know. At least we weren’t around to cope with  the confusion when the annual calendar was changed from Julian to Gregorian.

Even-Keeled and At-Eased

By Alberto Ríos

But the truth is, I am Thursday on a Monday. I

Am the walking calendar alive of mixed-up days and dim hours. I have

A week inside of me, a week or a year, time out of order. I have contracted

With the world to behave, to try, hard, to be Monday on a Monday. I

Look like I am happiness, don’t you think? On Monday, to you I have

The right laugh, and seem always to be even-keeled and at-eased.

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