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<\/a><\/p>\nI’m beginning to wonder whether I misnamed this moon. \u00a0Not sure the bloodroot’s gonna bloom before it wanes. \u00a016 degrees out now, headed down to 2 tonight. \u00a0Average daily high now 40 degrees. \u00a0But, in terms of astronomical events today is the day we shift past the \u00a0the celestial mid-point and the celestial equator. (see illustration)<\/p>\n
That makes spring the formal designation. \u00a0Meteorological spring began on March 1st, but I follow the stars as does the Great Wheel. \u00a0The Vernal Equinox has a long tradition as not only the start of spring, but of the new year. \u00a0It lost its spot as the New Year in 18th century England, 1752 to be exact, when Lady Day, March 25th (a fixed date to celebrate the coming of spring and the new year and the feast of the annunciation), lost its New Year’s Day status to January 1st as the Gregorian calendar reforms began.<\/p>\n
Today neither meteorological spring nor astronomical spring puts us in that season. \u00a0The weather is not co-operating with the calendar in either instance. \u00a0There’s a lesson here. \u00a0Rules, no matter how precise, or how ancient, no matter how usually reliable or hoaried with veneration, can never overcome, as the military says, the facts on the ground.<\/p>\n
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The lesson of the Great Wheel will, however, grind its way toward truth. \u00a0At some point the winds will shift. \u00a0The cold air will retreat back to the North Pole. \u00a0The snow will melt and the grass will green, flowers bloom and children ride their bikes in the streets.<\/p>\n
Even though today doesn’t shout out verdant or shorts and t-shirts the vitality of Mother Earth is only delayed, not denied. \u00a0When we use the seasons as a metaphor for human life, we can imagine that we have passed the spring time of our lives. \u00a0This is not so. \u00a0Our bodies, yes, they continue on, hammered by entropy, drawn back toward the earth by the gravity of our years, but our soul, or whatever that mysterious piece of us is that hovers in and around that body, renews itself over and over.<\/p>\n
Take down a new book. \u00a0Pick up a hammer, or a carving tool, or lines of computer code. \u00a0Perhaps a paint brush or a blank page. \u00a0Visit the grandkids or an old friend or make a new friend. \u00a0The sparks of love and creativity in our lives can rejuvenate us over and over again, turning a winter, even one that seems determined to stay too long, into a springtime. \u00a0Those seeds you planted when you were twenty, but forgot to water? \u00a0Remember them. \u00a0This is their season. \u00a0Wake them up.<\/p>\n
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Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Bloodroot Moon I’m beginning to wonder whether I misnamed this moon. \u00a0Not sure the bloodroot’s gonna bloom before it wanes. \u00a016 degrees … Continue reading In Spite of the Evidence on the Ground, the Sky Says It’s Spring<\/span>