The Spring Equinox is a profound expression of tender balance at the midpoint. In our excitement that winter is over, we may forget to connect with the sublety and precision of the moment.

What lessons does the natural world offer during this brief stopover from one season to the other?

If you are reading this you have a direct interest in the knowledge and experience of other living beings. Explore incorporating the metaphors and lessons that this occasion offers to become more aligned with the changing nature of our seasons. Even becoming aware of the effect of climate change on when and how our seasons arrive.

Does spring truly arrive at the equinox? While that does depend on the area of Canada that you call home, most adults can remember a time when winter held stead longer, and spring arrived with a gentle flourish. Often here, on the west coast of Canada winter lags on for what seems like months, with fervent late storms and lashing wind, and then all of a sudden summer heat arrives without the gentle introduction of spring.

How can becoming more aware and aligned with the seasons help us to understand the shifts and intensities of our changing climate? How can we learn to adapt to a world we no longer can measure by the calendar?

Spring is not only a place in time. It is knowledge. How the plants and animals shift in reaction to this wisdom; the lengthening of the day, the budding of plants, snows melting and ever increasing sunshine all inform the natural world what is afoot. The responses of all beings are not automatic, not merely “if then” statements of a basic brain, but adaptations, learned knowledge built into their histories and lineages passed down through cellular and taught experiences.

This fleeting season is a rooted in Patience, Balance and the Power of Vulnerability. Understanding that quietly waiting until optimal conditions arrive before continuing, balancing work and play and offering the tender shoots of our ideas and feelings with others are powerful living metaphors of creating lives in alignment with the synergy of the equinox.

How will you root yourself in this changing season? What seeds will you nurture for growth and expansion as the “growing seasons” emerge? How do you wish to live in alignment with our more than human neighbours?

The Biology of the "Waking"

The Equinox marks the Vernal Point, with the sun crossing the equator from south to north. In the Northern Hemisphere this is when, biologically, photoperiodism takes over—the sheer amount of light triggers a hormonal shift in everything from songbirds to sap-heavy maples.

This moment is when the rises perfectly due east and sets, perfectly due west, for the entire planet. Aligning the entire population of the earth in an instant of perfect synchronicity and reset as our internal compasses point in the same direction for this brief moment. A delicate dance of harmony that is not mean to linger.

As the earth begins to warm from the increasing generosity of the sun, the microbial life begins to stir and wake up from the lengthy winter slumber. This process of waking up contributes to geosmin - the distinctive, earthy smell of warm soil that when inhaled can induce happiness and a sense of connectivty, while shifting our nervous systems into “rest and digest” mode.

Sap begins the lengthy descent from its safe haven in the roots during the cold months, to the lofty reaches of the tips of a tree’s outermost branches. This hydraulic surge is nothing short of an engineering marvel as tons of water and sap make their way through the xylem and phloem to ensure the health and growth of an individual for another season.

It’s also a time of coming together as the migratory birds overlap in their transition, with the resident wintering birds. The chorus of song thickens with the overlapping voices of our feathered kin.

Reading the signs of shifting seasons has been regular practice for Indigenous peoples, including the K’ómoks, Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth across Vancouver Island. Calendar dates were not needed to declare spring arrived. It was known by the softened soils and readiness of roots for digging. The return of the herring and resumption of waterway travel.

The land we inhabit is alive with knowledge. It only takes us learning the language for us to be able to hear what it’s wishing us to know.

Mirror Witness

The Equinox is a mirror. Reflecting back on itself the equal, delicate balance, of day and night.

Where is your body are you acknowledging this liminal moment? How do you embody this state of stillness before surge. Does a seed realize its becoming? Is the pressure it feels before bursting forth to root and grow into its biological design - food, flower or tree - understood as the threshold that must be crossed to inhabit its potential?

Allowing yourself the gift of holding space on this threshold, for a brief moment, to inhabit and understand the deep time and intelligence of how our natural world shifts, changes and becomes is an inherent and necessary task to deepening our place in the ecosystems we inhabit.

Reading the cues, the subtle shifts in Sky, Soil, Sea, and our Body as the angle and amount of solar radiation increases along our particular geographic corridors ensures and solidifies a strong connection. Invoking benefits that stretch far beyond ourselves, supporting convivial relations with all that exist in the more than human world; keeping the web of life intact and balanced.

Witnessing the changes in the sky on Vancouver Island, is an exercise in viewing the almost imperceptible. As the clock ticks towards spring, minutes of daylight accrue. Evening lingers. The low sun slides longer across forests and tidal flats. Our shadows stretch.

In the neighbouring forests, the soil begins to slowly warm with the lengthening daylight. Soil microbes become alive again. Roots systems stretch and begin their tender search for where they may unfold their growing forms. Moisture becomes unlocked. The system is recalibrating…..

READ THE FULL ESSAY HERE →

The Invitation 

Weekly nature connection practices aligned seasonally to engage with your locale. Encouraging immersion, appreciation and spiritual attunement with the more than human world around you.

^{Always remember to enjoy these practices within the bounds of your physical and ecological limits (do not sit outside when it’s -40, or walk on slippery surfaces), practice “leave no trace” and mindful reciprocity (take only what you need, ask permission from the earth, and only leave what is naturally biodegradable)}

A Final Note

Singing the Earth

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Nature. Connected.