Wow, Spring is really exuberantly blooming all over the place! I'm so thankful for the gorgeous glorious reminders of hope, joy, magic, rebirth, liberation. In times of uncertainty, trauma, destruction and devastation, feeling beauty and love and delight can sometimes feel truly revolutionary. And so essential: staying connected to what we love and care for, in life and in the world, supports our souls and holds the vision for peace, healing, and justice.
As you may know, Wood is the element associated with this time of year in Chinese Medicine, the energy of green growing plants and trees (read so much more about the Wood element and its associated organs of Liver and Gall Bladder, in the blog archives, if you like). The soul of this element is the spirit of vision and imagination, the spirit of dreams- both the sleeping kind and the life's purpose kind. Lorie Eve Dechar writes (in Kigo): "Wood is life becoming! ... Wood is the energy of birth, sprouting, healthy aggression [justice], creativity and the fierce desire to take one's place in the dance of life ... exuberance, vitality, freshness and determined hope ... Yet [the other face of Wood is] softness, delicacy, tentative vulnerability ... tenderness and beauty." In the busy creative assertive energies of spring, just taking a few moments to exhale and inhale, re-center, feel the earth beneath us, can nourish us (like watering a plant!) and bring us home.
Friends, I hope each radiant wildflower face, each birdsong, each newly green or lushly blossoming tree that you see, reminds you to nourish and nurture your tender soul with care, to receive resources of water, sunlight, darkness, earthly nutrients, fresh air, and deep love, just as you would offer them to a beloved plant or tree or other cherished being. May your dreams and actions bring healing to all.