Seasons Turning

Every season there is something to look forward to. And we look forward to these things because they are transient.
     They come and they pass and we won't see them again until the Wheel of the Year has made a full turn again.
     In the Spring we look forward to the new leaves appearing on the trees. I watch our hawthorn through the kitchen window and suddenly there are little beads of green, like emerald jewels appearing along its branches. They swell, almost as you watch them, and burst, popping out the tiny spikes of bright green leaves.
     Every day there are new flowers appearing in the garden. Or the new leaves of plants which will flower in the summer.
     It really is a miracle the way the barren, bare, brown earth becomes covered with leaves of wild garlic, primroses, foxgloves, alkanet and comfrey.

     At the same time the days are lengthening, the nights growing shorter. This is dramatically apparent when we change the clocks at the end of March, and the evenings are suddenly even brighter and longer.
     There is no wonder that Spring is the season of youthful Goddesses and Gods. They return from the dead, they emerge from the Earth, they are re-born and grow with the plants and the light.
     This is the time of the Maiden and those spirits which care for all young creatures. Dummuzi or Tammuz is the young shepherd who returns in Spring to the loving arms of Inanna. Attis, the young bull, returns to Kybele.
     Even the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, puts away her crown and returns to her mother Demeter, and becomes again the Spring Goddess, Kore.
     These returns are all times of joy, and made even more joyful simply because of their transience.
     Time will pass, the plants will flower and mature. The trees leaves will change from the bright yellow-green of Spring to the darker green of the mature woods.
     The young gods will grow older, mature, become bored of their older lovers and seek new loves amongst the fresh, sweet young humans, and sow again the seeds of their own Autumnal destruction.
     But for now we shall forget the future, forget what is to come, and instead celebrate the return of Life to the Earth.
     Plant some plants, sprinkle some seeds. Make a bird table or put up some nesting boxes. Make your garden a place to welcome Life and it will also breathe new life into you.