Alien

We can be confident that spring will eventually come, not least because these pussy willows, masquerading as some odd alien creature, are beginning to emerge. It’s a time of thawing. Winter is ending and I notice that this piercing cold and wind froze more than just the ground. Now the ice is melting and I can see how constrained I’ve allowed myself to become – tensed shoulders, tight belly, eyes focused down. It’s a way to get through cold spells. Now it’s time to move into a more active stance for the coming season.

As a strategy for coping with winter that’s fine. But other aspects of our lives have been constrained. And essentially shutting down and waiting isn’t the best strategy to address what’s happening in our country. I can reasonably assume that spring (or some climate-altered version of it) will come. I can’t make the same assumptions for our democracy. We must be engaged and active, not waiting to see what will happen or for others to act.

I’m not sure what this coming time will look like; the season is still young. And the analogy to spring is, sadly, weak. I hope it resembles spring but I see little that resembles rebirth in our present national conversation. Still, whatever it will look like, it will call us to speak up and come off the sidelines, to take a more active stance. I hope we are ready.