Daylight savings just passed the other day, and we are nearing the Vernal Equinox, one of two points in the year where there are amounts of light and dark in our day. I am so ready for the sun’s glorious return into dominance. Are you?
I never ended up taking advantage of the item on my list for last week that encouraged me to go out and do some work in the yard. It was SO COLD last week. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Yesterday I made the rounds in my backyard to survey how all the plants have been progressing in their seasonal hibernation or death, and was sad to discover that all of the once sunny marigold flower heads were now dried up seed pods that turned mostly to powder between my fingers. I had so many marigolds throughout the yard this last summer, and I had been really good for the last couple of years at gathering their seeds in time. Darn it!
It feels like I have disappointed one of my own seasonal gathering traditions. There is a pile of seeds from other backyard plants which I harvested last summer for this coming season, but the marigolds were the first seeds that I ever gathered regularly from my garden so my own neglect of them still stings a bit. I am reconciled by the fact that there are plenty more marigold seed varieties at the store, and there is always next year to make the time to gather future spent seeds from the garden.
Onward the seasonal progress turns, regardless of how prepared you or I can make time to be present within each moment of it. The shift of light, warmth, and new or renewed life that I surveyed near to as well as a few feet above the ground yesterday felt more exciting than discovering scrawled treasures tucked away in a book. These plants, especially the medicinal ones, are reawakening from their winter hibernation. Soon, they will be ready for me to work with them again, and I am getting more exited with every day that the sun lingers a little longer in their beds.
When the sun begins to resume it’s place on the throne of day, I tend to get more productive indoors; readying to make the things that I plan to share with the world. Of course the garden calls to me, and I answer more often once the sun is out for longer, but after I have had that solar recharge I am ready to retreat, cool down, and produce.
Perhaps today is the day that I get back out into the yard to clear away the summer and fall debris, or maybe I spend one more day letting it rest while I add more gesso to some new paintings…but I really hope that I can make time to do both.