February

Image by Roman Datsiuk on Unsplash

“The February sunshine steeps your boughs

And tints the buds & swells the leaves within.”

William Cullen Bryant

“Winter brings pleasures of which summer knows nothing.” Rachel De Thample

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February began with the snow moon, and did we ever get some snow! Snuggling indoors, watching the rhododendron leaves as they conserve their life-force by contracting themselves when the icy blizzard-wind slashes them against the window. The sunlight glistens against the frozen snow which quietens the world. There is anticipation that the seeds, buried in the dark, that promise regeneration in a few short weeks, will soon began their journey toward the sun.

It’s always colder before spring tiptoes through the garden nudging each plant and flower to show their heads. Spring is an excitement that I simply have to wait for, while my woodland trees and shrubs wear snow hats, and squirrels plunder their acorn stores hidden beneath the eaves where the snow has melted.

The stillness of everything, the beach in winter-empty of color, and yet, I see risings of spring. The dawns and sunsets are colorful again, animals rousing from hibernation, and the night holds off a little more each afternoon. It’s the promise of spring! To bring that feeling indoors I string fairy lights, put pinecones in a bowl by the door, and wear a tank top under my shirt. There is a warming coming soon and I want to be ready!

I walk across the snowfield that is my back yard, and check on the tree buds, the increasing light having done its job of encouraging them to grow fat with possibilities. It’s time. Brigid, the matron of poetry, healing, and the hearth, is guiding me to tend my personal fire, to create with passion and nurture my home place. It is time. Time to grow, to sow, to look beyond the bare trees against the wintery sky and see the future of the Earth as she removes the cloak of winter and revels in the sun of another spring.