Happy Spring Equinox!
Let's shake off that cold!
Here we stand at the halfway point between Winter and Summer and let me tell you, just as the old saying promises, March came in like a lion and is going out like a lamb. This time last week it was cold and pouring rain with occasional snow and sleet. For me, that’s Heaven, but it’s not everyone’s favorite weather.
Even an old rain hound like myself had to smile when today, right on the Equinox, it was sunny and beautiful. It was not exactly warm, but it was warmer, which is what Spring is all about. I am a hermit in Winter (and not far from it in warmer times), so I tend to emerge, blinking and squinting, wondering what that big fire ball is doing in the sky and looking around to see if my shadow is visible like Punxsutawney Phil.
It’s seed time and baby chick time and early bulb flower time. Our hyacinth and our daffodils somehow survived the weather and are standing upright again after a good ice beatdown. We can all hope we emerge so undamaged and beautiful, right?
I don’t make my resolutions in January with the masses. Mine come at Spring Equinox, the time of planting. The older I get, the harder it is for me to find what I want to plant for the years. For almost three decades it was a desperate list of reliable automobiles, another stream of income, greater peace of mind, a new washing machine, and other much-needed goals. Now, at sixty-three, I am so danged grateful to wake up in the morning that anything else is a bonus because I already won the jackpot.
I don’t have many close friends, which is something I always wanted, but the friends I do have are loyal, kind, smart, funny, compassionate, and magical. I have wonderful, close relationships with four of my six kids, which is a gift for which I cannot offer enough gratitude. I have a wonderful relationship with my husband, despite spending pretty much all of our time together and twenty-eight years of marriage. I feel safe and nurtured in my home, despite the inevitable few hairball weeks of fire threat in the summer.
When the kids were growing up, I could not imagine a life where I wanted for so little. In a way, it feels like a insult to that harried, persistent woman who somehow managed to get up again after some pretty intense knock downs, sort of like those hyacinths in my flower garden.
I’m still not sure what I want to grow in my life, although I should decide before Eric and I ritualize our goals on Saturday. I have had a few years where I did not grow anything, but only said “thank you” for all I have. During those years, my “fields” rest, laying fallow for the next year’s seeds. This might be one of those years.
As I consider it, I think I want to grow an abundance of whatever I have that those closest to me need so I can share it with them and lift them up when they are struggling. The world is hard right now. Life is hard, even when you are doing the very best you can. I hope all of you are giving yourself and each other grace during these times when all you can give sometimes just isn’t enough.
It is so much easier to hold space for someone else than it is to hold space for yourself. It is so much easier to know the solutions and best paths forward for someone else than it is for yourself. And yet, we need those gifts as much as anyone else does.
In this time when so many people are angry and afraid, it is easy to fall into the trap of allowing those feelings to define us and our lives. Spring still comes, sweet and warm, just like it always did. The moon rises and slips through its phases, just like it always did. Some really wonderful things are constants, at least as nearly as we can tell. Kittens are still sweet and soft and funny. The sunsets are still beautiful. Love still feels really good. The forest still smells like something calming and feral at the same time.
Even though there are so many reasons to be afraid, there are still good things in the world and you can - you must - make it your business to find those things. That is how we get lost, by losing sight of the sacred and the lovely experiences around us. It is so very important that we tune into the Now and be completely present when those good things are happening. When the fear and anger steal us away from those experience, that is when evil wins. Don’t let it win.
The new issue of Green Egg magazine comes out TOMORROW, March 21st.
Lots of great stuff in there:
You can get your digital copy for only $3.50 by going to www.greeneggmagazine.com. We also have back issues going back for years. On that same link, you can find our Green Egg Blog with frequent updates, including “Stone Magic,” “Tarot Talk,” “Herb of the Week,” “Practical Magic with Saiorse” and “The Mystic Witch’s Journey.”
Do you have magical thoughts or information to share? Email me any proposed articles (under 1500 words), poetry, artwork, etc. and we will consider it for publication (drrasbold@gmail.com). Your voice is just as important as anyone else’s.
Crossroads Occult still has all your favorite incenses, sprays, oils, and baths, as well as services such as remote cleansings, spell work, and readings.
Happy Ostara to all of you who celebrate. Eric and I will be thinking of you and sending the best outcomes your way.
