The Winter months past the holiday season are always the longest.
The snow piles up, the days are bitter, and it’s hard to imagine life awakening any time soon.
But it does.
Every year at Nature’s chosen time, the ground begins to warm, the birds return, and the Earth feels alive again. It’s a magical time sacred to us children of Nature, full of new possibilities and new life.
The weeks leading up to the first signs of Spring are the worst for me, much like a lot of people. We survived “the holidays”, only to be served a different type of unnatural state of limbo, where we’re told to “get back to normal”.
Winter, the entirety of it, is meant to be a period of rest. The weather is still cold, the ground still frozen, despite those freak warm days brought on by climate change. It may feel warm and sunny outside today, but it’s only an illusion. It’s still winter.
Perhaps we wouldn’t feel so out of place if the world could understand Nature’s order. Sadly, two thousand years worth of religion, government, and society based on output instead of survival has skewed our perception of seasons. Is it spring when the calendar says so, or the meteorologist? Neither, actually, as both are man-made theories based on human’s wants.
The Earth’s real time clock is actually very simple and easy to track. There are two equinox dates, when day and night are equal. There are also two solstices, one being the longest day and the other being the longest night. Our calendar (created by the Roman Catholic church, remember), has mistakenly marked these four important dates as the “beginning” of the season. (And I do realize this is also the doing of the science men who decided these dates based on a very industrialized way of agriculture).
In the Earth’s reality, these dates are actually the mid point of their seasons. This means Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Fall Equinox are all the half way point of their respective seasons. The half way point between these are the beginning and end.
You might argue that the beginning of February (this year Imbolc, the half way point of Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox lands on 2/3) is still far too cold to be considered spring. However, if you pay attention, you’ll see the Earth coming alive. Of course not everyone is going to see spring at the same time. Anyone involved in gardening knows we operate on different growing zones, because it takes a varying amount of time for the ground to thaw, based on how cold that region gets.
Now, I should mention this is my belief and feeling of when Spring actually starts. I know some do see the first day of spring as the Equinox, or the start of the Zodiac New Year, and that’s completely fine. We are all trying to make sense of calendars that don’t, using whatever methods help us feel more connected to the Natural World.
Ultimately, Spring starts when you feel it. It doesn’t happen at an ultra specific time every year. Nor does act in a textbook, flowchart sort-of-way. There is no guarantee the temperature will be warm enough for shorts, no refund for not being able to garden on desired dates.
Spring just happens. It’s sudden, random. A click that tells you the Earth is alive again, the soil ready to be worked. The sun warms you in a way that can’t be chilled by a biting wind, for even the air feels kissed by a promise of heat to come.
I’m learning to lean in to these signs, listening and watching for the outdoor cues. One day past Imbolc, I know Nature will whisper that it’s time, and I’ll begin digging again.
Calendar be damned.
A potted plant (Geranium) that lives in my indoor garden in a room in the basement. This picture from last winter. It has continuously bloomed for a few years now. I’ve taken clippings from it and started new plants. My indoor garden keeps away the dreariness of the barren landscape during the Winter.