Spring Offers Opportunities to Reconnect With Nature

Spring is the perfect time to reflect on the Divine in all of Creation

This morning as I watched the spring sun stream through my kitchen window I felt a surge of newness, a sense of being reawakened after a long winter slumber. Breathing a prayer of thanksgiving for the new beginnings that are taking place in nature caused me to reflect on how the changing seasons mirror the changes in my life, and the need to once again celebrate the teachings and practices that consecrate the universal marriage of matter and spirit.
Little by little, more and more of us are remembering, “We are nature. Long have we been absent. . . . We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again.”1 In coming full circle, we are reconnecting to the transformational power of the landscape, the elements, and the directions. As we do so, some feel bewildered by the deep and intense need to create sacred ceremony and practice sacred rituals that honor this connection. Having no Indigenous roots, some wonder at the sources of such longings. In truth, however, each of us has tribal roots; the Earth is Mother to each of us. Her Landscapes, Her Rocks, Her Water, Her Fire, Her Air are for each of us, belong fully to each of us, are within each of us. It is time to honor again, as our ancestors did, the Earth as our body, Water as our blood, Air as our breath, and Fire as our spirit.
Since the dawn of civilization humans have lived in close attunement with the elemental forces in nature. Individual and communal life was structured around the need to maintain balance between the elements and forces of nature. Personal and collective power was drawn from the elements as well as from the rivers, the mountains, the lightning and thunder, the sun, the moon, and the sky. The need to stay in right relationship with these forces was a common celebration theme, especially in honoring the power-point times of the year, such as during the summer and winter solstices, and the autumn and spring equinoxes.
Connecting with the elements of the Earth helps us more readily connect with the seasons and the cycles within our own lives: spring, summer, autumn, winter, birth, growth, decline, and death . As we change and grow, the seasons offer constant reminders of the transformational forces all around us.
Becoming more aware of the Earth’s processes and seeing ourselves as part of the whole helps us to let go of our need to control life. We are reminded to accept the seasons and changes as a part of the unfolding of the universe within and around us. Just as the fertility and newness of spring have been celebrated for tens of thousands of years, we too can plant the seeds of newness, the ones we sorted during the days and nights of our long and bitter winters. We too can feel our own power as we rise to greet the sun on these spring mornings.
To transform in the direction of wholeness is to acknowledge that healing ourselves and working to resolve the contradictions in the Human-Earth ecology is the same work. 2 It is recognition of the Divine within All. To resolve this contradiction is to affirm that the “Earth is Christos, is Buddha, is Allah, is Gaia.”

©Jane A. Simington, PHD. March 27, 2013

1. Whitman, W. 1819-1892. We Too, How Long We Were Fooled (Poem). In Public Domain.2. Roberts, E. & Amidon, E. 1991. Earth Prayers. San Francisco: Harper Collins.