Slowly preparing for the season of rebirth 🪺
Seven Sacred Days: The Spring Series #2.
Hello, friend.
I am wondering, do you need this spring as much as I do? Are you longing for the season of rebirth like me? And does it feel like a very slow awakening from a long, dark, difficult period for you too?
Since the Equinox on Wednesday, I have realized just how much I have been yearning for spring, how ready I am for the shift from the reflective, inward, restful energy of winter to the rising, inspiring, creative energy of spring.
However, I don’t want to rush too quickly, or bound too wildly into the new season. I want to ease into it. I need to ease into it.
So, I want to use this short series of spring letters to you as a way to stay grounded and stable and mindful as we prepare for the outward, bright, light, alive season that lies ahead. As I said, I feel no need to rush into the season of spring. I do not expect flowers to bloom and the weather to become warm and sunny overnight. Here in Scandinavia, in fact, it is still chilly and rainy and gray. Snow is still in the forecast. At the same time, there are teeny, tiny buds on some bushes and trees. Birds are now singing their morning songs. And, already, the sun rises at 5:30 am, as we march onward toward the brightest days of the year.
No, I don’t need for spring to arrive overnight this year. I am enjoying the slow unfolding that challenges me to really feel the shifting of the seasons. It feels good to align with the pace of nature this year. To experience the changes, but to also recognize that spring is a long season of slowly releasing the energy that has gathered and alchemized during the quiet, difficult, restful, dark winter.
And, while life is most definitely fleeting, which often causes me to want to make things happen immediately; more than anything this spring, I just want to be present as the season unfolds. I want to soak in every single moment of wonder as the buds unfurl on the branches and the flowers begin to push forth from the ground. I want to take the time to notice the morning birdsong and let the spring rains nourish and purify me, just as they nourish and purify the earth.
Like the earth, I need time to emerge and be reborn.
So, my focus through the end of March is to slowly celebrate the coming of spring with these letters to you.
As we welcome spring and approach April, I plan to use these quiet times of writing to you as a way to reflect over how I want to live and be during the light half of the year. And I have five different areas, or themes, that are the perfect companions for welcoming spring and rising into a new growing cycle that I want to share with you in these letters:
Committing to a few grounding practices for the season ahead
Creating a personal manifesto or creed under the full moon (to guide us through the months until the autumn equinox)
Setting aside time to learn, study, read as a way to grow in knowledge
Connecting and gathering with others in order to celebrate rituals and create community
Making time for sabbath, rest, and renewal
And, lastly, a welcome letter for the month of April
These themes and letters are my way to bring intentional meaning to these first few days of spring. I suppose they are a way for me to set the tone and drop into the energy of the season. The whole idea is to give me (and you, if you want to follow along) space to consider what rebirth means this spring. Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I want to live for the next six months? What do I hope grows? What do I want to create and bring forth?
I’ll end this letter by throwing out one last question to us all: What grounding practices do you feel called to bring into your life for the next 6 months?
I think that I am feeling called to continue to practice yoga, deep breathing, and daily journaling. These are not new practices to me, but they have waxed and waned in my life throughout the years. Now, I don’t intend to create any sort of schedule or plan, mind you; but I am going to follow my intuition and let these 3 practices flow in and out and through the days and weeks and months ahead, giving me a sense of calm, peace, and stability. Giving me space to return to my center in one way or another every day.
What about you, dear friend? Is there a grounding practice that you feel that you want to bring into your life this spring? How do you feel about this upcoming season? What kind of creations are waiting to emerge from you? How are you preparing for your own rebirth?
Wishing you sweet moments of spring this weekend. Until Sunday, lovely.
xoxo. liz.
Daily qigong and meditation help ground me. Allowing these to bring a steady flow helps for everything else to fit in a bit better. As you say, these processes and intentions help us align with the pace of nature, which likely knows better than we do much of the time!
Wishing you a gentle and stable Spring, Liz.
This is such a beautiful idea and practice. I am so looking forward to your letters easing me into spring too. It does feel like a long and not always comfortable transition but I am here for it and want to experience it fully without rushing forward. I too am finding the need for earthy grounding whilst growth seems to be in ascendance. I will be walking in the woods as much as I can, clearing the garden, writing in whatever form I am called to and moving my body as it wants to move. I also hope to create a sort of rhythm to my days that balances intuitive ease with intention xx