On Sunday we participated in the Pledge to Go Dark for the Earth and turned our lights off for an hour. It was a symbolic gesture, a display of universal commitment to protect the planet. We sat and talked in the golden glow of a table full of candles (and an iPad, I admit). In addition to the reminder about our planet and our energy use, this process got me thinking about light and dark.
We’ve emerged from winter, a season where darkness abounds, to spring, a time where light flows back and enlivens our world. In this season light expands literally and metaphorically. The days are getting longer; the flowers are blooming; the birds are singing more vigorously, perhaps an enormously pregnant opossum is preparing to give birth under your shed! (yes, that’s happening here). These are external signs of the return of the sun. But spring’s light often brings something else, a sense of internal expansion and potential. We are inspired by new life. During our traditional spring-cleanings we shake off the dirt from the confines of winter when we’re pent up in the cold and dark. Time to move out of old cycles and start fresh.
Spring is a season of hope. Not clichéd saccharine hope, but instinctual, millennia-old, felt in our cells, capital H, Hope. For our ancestors in ages past, and for many people living without adequate shelter, spring’s arrival was a big deal. We survived! Life goes on. For most of us in the Western world in 2013, winter is not a matter of physical survival, but we still had to endure the darkness. However, without the unique kinds of nourishment that dark provides we can’t reap the benefits of the light. For example, without the time to lie dormant and recharge, the tulip and hyacinth bulbs would not bloom.
Maybe we have that aspect to us too. Maybe our “darkness” is physical pain, emotional struggle, professional challenges, loss, grief, whatever makes us feel bleak and despairing. But perhaps the act of moving through that darkness fuels the flowering of our personal springs (yes plural), when we heal, overcome, succeed, dream, love.
Spring is a fertile time, again literally and metaphorically. Our holidays reflect the theme of birth and rebirth. Easter celebrates Jesus’ resurrection after the crucifixion. Passover commemorates the Jews exodus from slavery in Egypt to start physically and spiritually free lives. Beltane, which comes a little later in the spring, honors the fertility of the earth and the power of the waxing sun.
As the baby birds are hatching, new ideas, and even new versions of our selves, are hatched most easily in spring. Is it time to recreate your self and your world? In a subtle way? In a dramatic way? What colorful vision are you ready to create in your life’s garden? Perhaps an internal and external life that hums with the excitement of a spring day? Are you ready to call your innate power into your world now?
That is what personal evolution is all about. It takes energy, just like it takes energy for Nature to do what she does; for trees’ leaf buds to burst forth into full verdant canopies; or for the tightly wound orbs of peonies to spiral out into ruffled masses of sweet pink perfection; or for the bees to go visiting, tirelessly making their rounds from bloom to bloom. But it’s what they are meant to do. It’s where their power lies. They don’t worry about it, debate about it or lose sight of it.
Defining for yourself what you need to be powerful is a first step in your personal evolution. It’s different for all of us (with some overlaps, of course). This is one important aspect of Personal Evolution Counseling™. If you need some help with that first step, let me know. I encourage you to move joyfully and bravely into the light this spring.
Wishing you a peaceful heart,
Mara
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