It’s now less than a week to the vernal equinox, the day when the sun’s rays cross directly over the Equator, providing equal portions of day and night in both hemispheres. Deep inside our bodies, we yearn for spring, the real spring of warmer days unlike the blowing snowsqualls of yesterday.
The garden shops tell us it is a time to think about planting although we shouldn’t clean of all those leaves from last fall just yet. In addition to bugs and spiders (which trap and east houseflies), the leaves provide warm protection for certain types of bees and butterfly caterpillars. Tucked into those piles of leaves are bird nest materials.
Now in the late winter unfamiliar plants start to grow, sometimes our native wildflowers from seeds blown by the wind that end up in our yards. If your soil is moist, even swampy, great blue lobelia or cardinal flowers will grow well; Joe-Pye weed, in spite of its name, will keep those butterflies and bees coming well into the fall that follows our muggy summers. So much to look forward to!
Prayer or the Day
In spite of the late winter snow, we know that spring will emerge
Filling our days with the warmth of the sun you created, O God;
Anticipating the beauty of even the weeds that sprout all around us,
We watch for the small signs of the change in seasons.
Hold us fast to your promise of new life as we search for your Presence
In what may seem like the mundane and ordinary.
In the name of the One who shows us the extraordinary,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Your time has come, now hasten little snowflakes to vanish quite away;
The springtide hours are sounding gentle warnings, forbidding you to stay.
- Mary E. Hathaway, poet
Over the winter glaciers, I see the summer glow. And through the wind-piled snowdrifts, the rosebuds below.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist (1803-1882)
Ask ran from the Lord in the season of spring rain,
Rom the Lord who makes the storm clouds,
Who gives showers of rain to you,
The vegetation of the field to everyone.
Zechariah 10: 1