Someone sent me a joke about the 12 weather seasons of New England, and I think we might be entering The Spring of Deception according to this calendar.
I see nature awakening around me as we go on our morning walks. Bits of green pushing up through our front lawn with heretofore unknown future flowers. One of the joys of your first year in a new home is you often don’t know what bulbs were planted where by the previous occupants.
And so I see crocuses popping up and I hear the very beginnings of the music of the peepers, but I remain dubious about the season changing. I’m nervous about the approach of “Third Winter” and “The Pollening” before Spring actually arrives.
For now I’m taking what I can get. A nice sunny day for a walk in our local park, or a lunch time visit to Silver Beach, a place that’s become a favorite spot for me.
And also I see more people out than I have for a while. Out of doors without masks, indoors mostly with masks, which is a perfect visual metaphor for how life is right now. We’re not out of the pandemic yet, and who knows if another variant will send us back into more cautious times, but still we’re trying to live our lives in the place that is the new normal.
Maybe the new normal means keeping a mask in your pocket as you go about your daily business, just in case you need to pop into a store for something, and feeling bold enough to take your mask off as you walk in a park.
I can think of worse things than a mindset of preparedness intertwined, like the The Two Aspects of Taiji, known also as the yin-yang symbol of Chinese philosophy; alongside a readiness to take the chance to remove your protective covering when you feel so emboldened.
As the natural world awakens from its months-long slumber, may you stretch your mind, body and spirit in this new season.
Your minister,
Rev. Joe
