MELODY VAUGHAN
Spring Equinox – as the seasons (re)cycle so can we
Welcome friends, to the spring equinox – the time of equal day and equal night – a moment of balance, and the threshold into spring and a new astronomical year.
Beginnings, new growth visible after months of seeds germinating inside the darkness. Maybe you are feeling it too, the tug at something inside, up and outwards, the energy emerging like sap rising in the trees. This could feel like a welcome relief after a long winter – a zingy freshness to start something, to get stuck in – or it could feel slightly unstable, this new electricity looking for a way out of dusty channels.
As nature bursts forth can we, as nature ourselves, allow whatever feelings are emerging to be ok?
Where have you noticed ‘spring energy’ returning to you/your practice?
What is the quality of this energy for you? Does this feel ok? Would you like it to be otherwise? Can you allow it to be as it is?
Where does this energy want to be placed? Is it for you? Your practice? Your communities? The collective?
Which seedlings within you/your practice/your communities/the collective would you like to nurture as you head into spring?
What support might you need to tend to this? Who could you look to for companionship in this work? Where could you look for connection? How could care be embedded in each interaction?
Usually I like to write these essays in the days just before the seasonal waypoint so that I can express what I am feeling in that moment, and feels connected to what is going on around me. This week I am empty. I wasn’t very well over the weekend and the tiredness and slowness of my brain haven’t gone away as quickly as I’d hoped. This is often the case in this new(ish) landscape of chronic illness.
This morning, the deadline for getting this email ready looming, I contemplated my options. I could just abandon the whole thing (I mean who would really notice?) or I could write something, anything, to be able to send, no matter whether it felt alive for me. But do you know what? I’m no longer interested in these capitalist norms that say we must be consistent and we must be perfect. I love having this seasonal connection with you at a pace that feels much more aligned with my nervous system than a weekly or monthly schedule. And writing this essay almost feels ritualistic at this point. I didn’t want to miss it. But, I also wanted to honour what my body/mind is telling me, that there isn’t much here to dredge at the moment, and not to force it.
So in the spirit of making an offering, but giving myself grace, I’ve decided to re-share a piece of writing from the Spring equinox in 2024. I am a big believer in revisiting work. I think we should normalise showing things, sharing things, exhibiting things, multiple times. Because the reality is that most folk miss things the first time around. And there is still so much value in older work, even if we think it’s been seen or heard before.
This piece of writing was only shared on my blog, so it’s entirely possible none of you saw it back then. And the sentiment it contains still feels relevant to me now, even 2 years on. I’ve also resisted the urge to edit or update any of the dates/information in here because I think it’s good to reflect on how much I’ve changed or the places where I would write something different now. As we spiral through these points again and again, they offer us so much scope for learning and noticing the incremental growth we are going through.
Click here to read A shared global experience of equinox
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