Spring Equinox

The Spring (Vernal) Equinox arrived this morning at 5:02 Mountain time. I actually slept through it but an hour and a half later I was ready to celebrate the change of seasons, the point at which the earth is in balance. 

Rather than signaling the start of spring, in the Rockies the vernal equinox starts the battle between the seasons where we have a short hint of warmth and green only to be tugged back to cold and snow. True to form the weather forecast for the coming days includes snow and highs in the low 30s. We are hoping for snow, lots of snow.

After the terrible wind storm of November 2011, we built a simple altar to honor those bits of nature who were lost and those who survived. We placed the altar on the remains of a grandmother cottonwood tree who was so badly damaged in the wind storm that she had to be removed. At her widest point she was 40" across. 

I add to the altar when I find something unique or special like a pine cone from a Ponderosa pine who makes the largest cones I have ever seen or a rock from the base of a tree that was hit by lightning. The native peoples believe those rocks have powerful energies. 

Today I meditated for a while then visited the altar to give thanks. Thanks for another long, dark season behind us; thanks for another season of life ahead of us. 

From Fleur Creek Farm