Spring Equinox 2024 is just around the corner. Daylight Savings time is in full gear, spring break is not that far away, and most likely, after another mud season and maybe even another snow storm or two, spring will arrive in Vermont.  For a number of years I was first, a contributor (Correspondent) to the Rutland Herald and Times Argus and eventually a Field Editor for a page appearing weekly on Sundays entitled “Active Vermont.” Though challenging to fill an entire page each week, it was a happy time as I not only had the opportunity to write, but I attended events, interviewed athletes, learned from experts and was happy to share it all. (I even had the opportunity of regularly working with the fabulous photographer, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur.) Just now, as I sat down to write a post about Spring in Vermont, I remembered several articles I had written for my page. The one, reprinted below, is one of my favs. Hope you enjoy and hope you make good use of those special days. Might they be gifts from the universe?

Spring Equinox – A Tease in Vermont

The word equinox is associated with the balance of equal parts day and night. To be more correct, equinox is all about the sun. At the Spring Equinox, March 20, 2011 at 7:21 P.M. EDT and again at the Fall Equinox, September 23, 5:05 A.M. EDT, the tilt of the earth’s axis will be neutral, neither towards nor away from the sun. The sun’s center will be in the same plane as the Equator.

Often celebrated as the “First Day of Spring,” the Spring Equinox becomes a solar festival. Yes, the earth’s axis is balanced, but it is ready to tip towards light. The days are about to lengthen and signs of new life will appear. With the added help of an early Daylight Savings Time (effective this weekend), spirits rise as each day becomes longer and brighter.

Spring in Vermont, however, is a tease. As we experienced this week, snow may fall heavily – in both quantity and quality. Variable temperatures, mixtures of rain, snow and ice, combine with inevitable thaw to create flood potential in swollen rivers, lakes and brooks. Mud season, our fifth and dirty season, is near.

It is the yin and yang of spring that tease us. Skiers shift gears and enjoy the unique characteristics of spring skiing as winter’s competitive season winds down. Plants that were only dreamed of in January are blooming profusely at home and garden shows. Hockey gear is being replaced by lacrosse equipment; bats and gloves are surfacing as news of spring training hits the papers. Runners, cyclists and paddlers are eager to take their training outdoors.

Yet all is done with an ear tuned to the meteorologist and an eye on the sky for just about anything can happen to upset plans. Perhaps the key to the changing conditions of a Vermont spring lies in flexibility – not muscular and joint flexibility, though that is always useful, but in creatively taking advantage of whatever opportunity each day may offer.

When my children and I moved to Vermont, we had been accustomed to springs marked by March tulips, forsythia and azaleas. By April it was short sleeve weather and by May we were mopping the sweat off our horses and ourselves.

During my first winter here, a coworker offered good advice. “Good days are rare – you know, the day when the sky is bright blue, the sun is shining and the air is crisp and clear. If possible, rearrange your work schedule to take a day off. Then go.”

We put his theory to the test and created one of the singularly memorable days of my kids’ childhood. It was April and, yes, we were supposed to be somewhere else. Though I am usually responsible to a fault, when the day dawned as a perfect day for spring skiing, and because I had worked hard all winter and not skied once with my children, I turned off the alarm clocks, gulped, and never looked back. I packed lunches, fed the animals (I would be mucking stalls after dark that day), grabbed a camera and woke up two surprised children.

The day was more than perfect. It was a memory in the making. By noon we were skiing in Tshirts. My kids were much better skiers, but with the forgiving corn snow, I was able to go with them on trails I had only imagined. We laughed, we played, we threw back our heads on the lifts to catch the glorious rays on our way up then raced down as if the hill belonged to us alone. During a late picnic lunch sprawled on the snow overlooking one of the most beautiful valleys in Vermont, we decided that life did not get much better than that.

Flexibility. We must be able to change our plans – cancel dinner reservations, delay a trip, read a book instead of hiking on a muddy trail, go to the gym instead of running on an icy road, or throw on sneakers instead of snowshoes. The weather rules; it is what it is. Our challenge is to adapt, to look for possibilities and perhaps even see opportunities where none seemed to exist, to be creative. Time is finite. What we have, we must use well.

If the Equinox is about balance, could we honor the coming of spring by seeking balance in our own lives?