The First Day of Spring came on a Sunday this year. The past few days have been very springlike in Seattle: sunshine and daytime high temps in the 50s. I actually sat outside talking with a friend, at 10 pm last night (!!) – with a coat on, of course! Unfortunately, my friend got quite chilled (he’s from Texas, not used to Seattle’s cold and damp). This is so different from March a few years ago: it snowed!
Of course, this time of year I always think, “renewal” and “new beginnings”. Today I added a new thought to that familiar pattern: Why is it that I associate the start of Spring, and words like renewal, with a particular day on the calendar? If you think about it, in February the crocuses began pushing up, the plum trees began blooming, and other trees suddenly had buds all over. Spring truly began over a month ago.
The date on the calendar is more of a wake-up call: to look around and notice that Spring is actually already here. To notice that the sudden wonder of Spring’s proliferation was maybe not so sudden after all; to remember that every blossoming – of a flower, or even a project, a dream, a task – is accomplished through a series of underground developments…by taking a series of small steps.
As I’ve told myself and my friends repeatedly, Incremental change is still change! You have to stop along the way and acknowledge those increments, especially at the times you feel like you’re making no progress at all.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
-Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC – 531 BC)
