Keep Spring Break Unbroken
Spring Break is springing toward us! Greening trees…budding branches…yellow jonquils peeking up at us…robins and finches and wrens Oh My!
The beginning of spring is many people’s most favored time of the year…Rebirth, renewal, rejuvenation. The world begins anew and we embrace the change and energy we feel all around us.
My cats, Socks and Lucky, also think spring is great stuff, even though as indoor cats their most direct encounter is through our living room’s big plate glass window. They soak up the sun that pours through as though they were big cartons and the milky light was filling them up.
Spring sees cats and people — and robins and finches and wrens Oh My! — as one and the same. Spring does not discriminate — it is for everyone: trees, flowers, cats, humans, birds, even rooftops and driveways and bowls of cat food.
I would like to be more like spring — even-tempered, cheerful, always looking at the bright side of virtually everything that has atoms and molecules. I would like to run and jump and cover the world with new flowers, new buds, new energy.
Sometimes it seems the world around us is a little broken. Too much war in the world…grim news in the headlines…sad children hungry for food or love or warmth.
Maybe the world gets a little better when we reflect on spring and spring break as times to remind us: the world is ultimately a great place! Despite some things that are broken in the world, it is ultimately a whole and healthy place.
Spring and spring break should remind us that joy overtakes sorrow, that renewal overtakes dying, and that light will overtake the darkness.
We have to work at that sense of renewal. Make spring break both energetic and quiet, both joyful and reflective, both fun and relaxing. Remind those around you to watch the birds…pet the cats…laugh at a magic trick…take a nap…listen to the breeze…and make spring part of your daily prayers.
Every little good thing you do helps spring add up the good stuff in life. Treat your family well…smile at someone who needs it…and remind yourself and others that spring springs at us every day — we have to be able to spring forward with it!
Happy Spring Break!