Things creep up on you.Like the equinox.It really should be a holiday, but then again today’s already Saturday.And from today, for the next six months, there will be more light than darkness.It was an occasion ancient cultures marked and celebrated.For us, unless it happens to fall near Easter (it’s still a couple weeks away this year), it’s an item in the news feed and nothing more.It is, however, an opportunity to celebrate our place in nature.The temperatures are beginning to warm just a bit around here, despite the flecks of snow in the air just three days ago.The more tenacious of the spring perennials have already begun to shine green.Things have begun to come back to life.That’s why Easter is always in the spring.
Today it will be light as much as it is dark.Balance.Our old wobbly earth strikes this metaphorical fulcrum twice a year, giving us a glimpse of what lies ahead.Birds, those great prognosticators, have been showing up to let us know things are about to change.Finches, robins, starlings, and mourning doves have been conspicuous the last few days.Even as the dirty, icy snow piles continue to hold on in their private mountains, they too seem to know time has come to be moving on.Change is the way of nature.This just happens to be the half of the year when we can see what we’re doing.At this great balancing point of the year we should take the opportunity to ask if we like where we’re heading.Do we welcome the light?
Soon enough we’ll begin to take it for granted.Life will continue its busy ways even as we tell ourselves summer is the time for vacations.Perhaps so.But let’s linger in this moment.Take a few minutes to ponder what it means to be in balance.Equality.It feels like something worth celebrating.Corporate American parsimoniously counts days that might be considered grudging respites from trying to cop a profit.Although we’re given Christmas off it can’t abide that moving target called Easter, which always comes on a Sunday anyway.Here in that calendrical holiday barren zone between Presidents’ and Memorial days, we’ll always find spring, if we look for it.It’s evident in the changing of the light, even if there’s still a chill in the air.Even as our bosses ignore it, the red buds begin to appear on the trees.
