Spring is the real new year as we experience the cycles of transformation

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Spring is the time of the real new year. In the mainstream world, we label the new year as Jan. 1, but that “new year” is really a just a matter of turning the calendar page.

In the season of spring, however, we actually experience the new year in our bodies. It is feast for all of our senses.  The weather lightens. The dawn arrives earlier, and the days grow longer. New green sprouts push their way through the soil, claiming their place in our lawns, gardens and forests. Soft buds begin to make their presence known, ready to unfurl into a new season. We feel the warming breeze, and our eyes adjust to the deeper greening of the land.

In this season, we can feel new energies rising within us, much like the sap that is rising in our sister and brother trees. The indigenous people, as well as people in other lands, find ways to celebrate and welcome this new cycle and new life.  So do we -- watching for the first rust-chested robin, the arrival of the white snowdrops and the multi-color crocus.

Recently I had the opportunity to sit with Selena Fox, a wise woman who is well known as a teacher of nature spiritualty and ritual as well as an environmentalist and one of the founders of Earth Day. Speaking of the sacred Spring Equinox, when the day light and night dark is about equal, we are aware of our earth's natural ability to find greater balance. She maintains that spring is entwined in the human spirit and encourages us to actually go out into nature and experience ourselves as connected to the web of all existence.

Perhaps that is what is so delightful about spring. Spring tells us, "I am here. I arrive as a reminder that joy and balance is available."

After the harshness of winter, there is more sun. And so, we have an embodied reminder of how the cycles move within us and around us, and how our world transforms.

How is it for you? I count myself in with this new year and ready for transformation

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