late winter

The days have been lengthening steadily, slowly at first, coming away from December 21st, then accelerating into the summer.  By mid-February, a meteorologist proclaimed from the television yesterday, we have added a full hour of daylight. 

And it feels like it.  For us who have lived in a northern climate all our lives, we recognize that subtle awakening going on inside, the coming back of a bit of spring to the step, and the looking forward again to the changing earth and what it might bring to our notice.  We wake earlier and better refreshed at that.

Now I can go walking in the pastures and pause my wading through the snow to push a little of it aside to see the greening of the grass, the coming of the first little spears of new life.  This is ancient wisdom. this coming of life(spring) after death(winter).  It is in late winter I feel the most sympathy for the snowbirds, the ones that have gone south for the winter.  They have meddled with that all important seasonal clock and neglected the fact that much well being comes of changing with the seasons, making us acutely aware of the rebirth of the earth and all its wonders.

Soon as the snow melts back, there will be the return of the seasonal birds and the warming of the soil will cause it to send up that unique smell, only available to us when the earth is warming or we have disturbed the soil.  It is this time of year when the need to be at home on earth is most apparent to those of us who are place bound.