The rites of spring

As I said last week, it feels here like it's finally spring, the season of resurrection, or maybe even of reincarnation. Things are starting to grow, it's full of promise and there's a sense of beginning again. It's new, again.

Resurrection, rebirth. What is resurrection but rebirth to a better life after sacrifice? What is rebirth except life realizing itself over and over in each and any moment? I'm reborn every morning. My karma doesn't have to be from another lifetime; I've got plenty to atone for or be proud of from this past weekend. I'm always being given a chance to be better, to renew, to be here now. I'm always given the option to discover and live my true nature, and if I've messed up and want to do better, then I get to go for it. Do it. Do it now. My dharma doesn't need to wait for another lifetime to manifest. I'm working on it all the time.

So, spring reminds me of all this. There will always be trials (that's fall), there will always be sacrifice (that's winter) and there will always be a chance at renewal and while the season of spring comes once a year in my location on this planet, it is a symbol of what comes to all of us in every moment -- an opportunity to begin again. (And, if all goes well, I'll have a summer to savor and harvest all the effort.)

Whether you believe in resurrection, in reincarnation, or in something altogether different, when all is said and done, when you settle into the here and now, you realize that you really only have, in the words of the brilliant Mary Oliver, this one wild and precious life. And so you have, once again, in every moment, this eternal question: What are you going to do with it?

Have a wonderful week.