Spring has Sprung: Equinox Emergence Circle

• Posted on 19 March 2024
• Posted in circle, gathering, meditation, reflection, seasonal connection, spring equinox
• 0

Happy Spring Equinox everyone! May this day serve as a pause in the breath of the year as we balance at the end of winter and beginning of spring. This day marks the time where there is equal amount of day and night, reminding us to find balance between our rest and play, starting to plant new seeds of spring, while still holding on to the wisdom of slowness and patience of wintertime. This transition can mean many things to many people depending on the climate they are used to as well as their own sense of inner season in their life. Perhaps you are still in an internal season of winter hibernating and processing big changes in your life, or maybe you’re in full bloom with an inner summer with lots of energy and things coming to completion and harvest in your life, or maybe you feel the gentle stirrings in your heart and mind of spring seeds waiting patiently to be sown in the soil. There is a beauty to getting to be just where you are and to move at your own pace in life regardless of the season others around you might be in. There is a reason for every season!

We sat with some of these questions and reflections this weekend at our Spring Equinox Emergence Circle. It was a beautiful time of deep connection to ourselves, the earth, and each other. This space was one of welcome to the muddy, not fully formed parts of ourselves emerging in this season. Just like the buds and blossoms outside take a risk when they bloom knowing there might still be another frost on the way, there can often be some uncertainty and unsureness as we transition from hibernation to spring.

To ease this transition, we took time to give gratitude and reflect on the wisdom and gifts that the previous season has brought us in order to more fully acknowledge how we have changed and what has been revealed over the past chapter of our lives. So often in life we are so oriented toward looking ahead at what’s coming we forget to look back and appreciate all that has happened and what we’ve moved through. The equinox is a beautiful time to pause and be in the place between what has been and what will be. Many of life’s richest and most fertile moments actually occur when we are not fully in one stage or another. Like the caterpillar who breaks down into a goop inside the chrysalis before they can emerge as a butterfly, we too must sit in process and integrate who we’ve been before we can grow new wings and fly into the future.

To be with this process we sat in meditation and walked around outside the store so that we could notice what is in between in the earth- the flowers not quite yet unfurled, the plants with both last years dry leaves and verdant new ones on the same stalk, the crispness in the breeze paired with warming sunshine. It was a gorgeous day to bask in new beginnings and grateful endings knowing they both can and often do coexist. 

After our meander, we percolated on what seeds we might be ready for as we move into spring. These seeds were rooted in a grace that they do not have to bloom overnight or even at all to be worthwhile. Sometimes it is worth doing something that feels right even if it does not appear to be the path of conventional “success.” Flowers do not need to be beautiful to do their job of reproduction for the plant, and yet, they are stunning works of art. So this spring may you remember that art and beauty are worthwhile even just for the pleasure of beholding and that you don’t have to bloom on anyone else’s timeline but your own. 

If you missed our Spring Equinox circle, feel free to mark this time in your own way. Reflect on your own inner seasons, plant seeds of being, and express your creative spark. You are right where you need to be.