Category Archives: Vermont

ALIGN AND ALLOW – SPRING

May 2025

Spring invites, teases, promises and, in spite of ourselves, stirs our souls. Perhaps Spring, more than January 1st or a birthday, marks a beginning. According to the Five Element Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Spring is the season of the Wood Element. It is the beginning of growth as the season transitions from winter – the most Yin time of the year – to summer – when Yang energy is at it’s peak.

In the world around us, new growth is evident. Geography informs the weeks and months in which this happens, but in any event, green appears – leaves on trees, grass pushing up from the soil, bulbs creating their hopeful display and buds opening to the sun.

This time of growth is also apparent in animals and humans as cubs, pups, goslings and lambs are born and spirits are lifted. Motivation and the awakening of sleepy energy are almost tangible.

How might we align ourselves with this season of new growth? Can we allow the fragile stirrings of energy and hoped for abundance land in our hearts and minds? As our roots grow deep, like trees we can open our branches and let time itself take over the process of flowering.

Returning to the Wood Element each spring makes sense to me. There are many resources but my continuing favorite is WOOD BECOMES WATER*, by Gail Reichstein. Here the author writes simply of relating the five elements to everyday life. For example, in the human life cycle, Wood parallels childhood. Consider the coincidence of dawn, creativity, green, wind, vision (physical and mental/emotional) and flexibility (literal and figurative) – all associated with this season. Again I ask, how might we align with this season of new growth?

Spring Tapestry

Here in Vermont, spring arrives late and is often subtle. As I write this, it is the middle of May and we are experiencing severe thunderstorms and buckets of rain. Gardeners are cautioned not to plant until Memorial Day weekend. (Snow, though welcomed in the winter might make a quick but unwanted appearance well into the month.) For the most part, frost has left the ground and mud season is past. Flooding is always a possibility. Fields of dandelions are about to pop with yellow-gold and hills are displaying texture and color as that gorgeous green of newness superimposes the dark green of pines, firs and their relatives. One cannot help but allow all that spring suggests to enter one’s being.

Yes, the world is a bit of a mess. Yes, we face daily challenges in many aspects of our lives. Yes, we feel helpless at times. And yes we really haven’t much to say about the changing seasons – they will happen one way or another**. So perhaps, the best thing is to let go, align with what this particular season suggests, and allow the growth to happen. If we are motivated to creatively look forward, let us follow those plans with good energy. If we are able to reframe our challenges and look at them – not as Pollyannas – but proactively, well then, let us get on with the business (and privilege) of problem-solving.

Spring is an invitation. If you have read this far(!), I invite you to pause to consider the season of your present life. Recently I was reminded that to pause and simply follow one breath cycle – I am breathing in; I am breathing out – is a meditation in and of itself, a moment of presence. It is a moment to align with oneself, to begin again.

Last night I stood with a much-loved family member to watch a boys’ lacrosse game. Approaching severe thunder storms mingled with intense competition as the two teams played a grudge match. Yet at one point, my companion said ‘Look!’ There across the sky was a complete rainbow. It was breathtaking.

A rainbow means many things to many people. From Noah and his Ark to  Judy Garland to Irish folklore, a rainbow represents an infinite display of meaningful emotions and values from art and religion to color, diversity and creativity; new beginnings. One of my favorite rainbow thoughts is from a work by Kristin Armstrong*** published many years ago in which she writes: “A rainbow is a symbol of mercy. It is more than a happy reminder of the holy calm after a storm. It is an arrestingly beautiful reminder of every single time in our lives when we did not get what we deserved – when we received blessing in place of punishment.” Armstrong goes on to suggest that seeing a rainbow marks a time to pause, a reminder to breathe, and the moment in which to say “Thank  you.”

Look up/

Look up. May you pause to align and allow.

*Wood Becomes Water, Chinese Medicine in Everyday Life, Gail Reichstein, 20th Anniversary Edition, (1998 and 2018) Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC

**There is no political implication in this statement but a rather naive sentiment of the hoped for permanence of the natural world.

***Strength for the Climb, Kristin Armstrong, (2007) Hachette Book Group

SPRING EQUINOX – A TEASE IN VERMONT

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?

This is one of my all time favorite photos, taken in 2010 by my friend Jeb Wallace-Bordeur.

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.

Button Bay early 2023

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.

photo by Jim Heins, 3-17-2024

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