Nature never changes. People are never alike.
So all of us end up seeing the same natural wonders from different points of view.When the sun shines on the just and unjust, the "just" run into the street to bask in the warmth, the "unjust" shutter themselves away and curse the light for revealing where the bodies are buried.
Same old sun. Different exposure.
Spring works that way, too. The coming of the buds and blossoms means - for many - that God's in his heaven and all's right with the world. Spring is deity's vote that the world is worthwhile.
For T.S. Eliot, however, spring was brutal. "April is the cruelest month," he wrote; it wakes us from our safe and easy stupor. Spring forces us to be active, alive and full of feelings again.
Still, for others spring serves as scenery and stage props. Like an elaborate backdrop for "Phantom of the Opera," the season simply sets the stage for water skiing, baseball, golf, hiking and picnics.
Spring even gets a role in some personal productions - often playing the airy character who shows up in the nick of time to save us from the blues, or serves as a stand-in for absent romance.
But in the world of words, the most common use of the season is as a metaphor - as a sign and token for the human heart's ongoing drama: the quest for faith and fulfillment.
We love the rebirth of Mother Earth. It signals the possibility of rebirth in ourselves. Buried in the word "rejuvenate" is the word "juvenile" - the idea that all things can - and will - be made young again. The perennial flowers in hibernation point to the merely "hibernating" loved ones who lie buried in the soil. The clumsy awakening of an old bear mirrors the clumsy awakening inside us when we stretch, blink and stride off into a fresh, uncertain world.
For the ancients, of course, the coming of spring was full of powerful meanings and magic. Spring was especially symbolic. Today, all that remains of those ancient feasts and festivities is May Day and its occasional May Pole; but centuries ago, in the British Isles, this was the season of Imbolc (pronounced IMM-ulk). Historian Caitlin Matthews writes of it this way:
The spring quarter of Imbolc brings the gift of insight and inspiration and is a time of beginnings and of essential truthfulness . . . In the human growth cycle, Imbolc corresponds to the period of childhood when all things are questioned or enjoyed for their own sake. Imbolc is a good time to celebrate the lives of "soul midwives" who have taught and prepared us, all who have been upholders of justice and truth, all holy ones who have gone to the heart of the matter with great clarity and insight.
In short, spring is the perfect time to celebrate rebirth, recommitment and Easter.
May this page help you move toward a special spring, a happy Easter . . . and a very imaginative Imbolc.