The Wheel of the Year turns and we are now at the Spring Equinox, a moment of equilibrium when night and day equalise and the start of the light half of the year. We briefly rest on the point of balance before allowing ourselves to jump into the new season with both feet!
Spring bulbs are popping up in the garden and adding delightful nuggets of colour in every corner. The crocuses in the grass in the little woodland are my favourite. I plan to add to them each year to create a crocus lawn as time goes on. Seedlings are filling the sunroom shelves with promise of abundant crops of lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cauliflower, cabbages and peas.
In the hedgerows, the hawthorn is budding, much to the delights of birds who munch on the fresh and tender new shoots. The hazel, not in leaf yet, has both catkins (male flowers) and tiny, bright pink bud-like shoots (female flowers that will turn to fruit when pollinated). New lambs appear in the fields around us daily and the little birds are pairing up and beginning to make their nests. The sparrows who live in the eaves of the house above our bedroom are waking up earlier and earlier!
Despite all the ugliness and destruction in the world, Nature is bursting forth with beauty and new life after the long, Winter slumber. I am enjoying connecting with its energy of renewal, hope and promise, basking in it with warm sunshine on my back and feeling the earth's nourishment beneath my feet. Now is the time to grow the seeds we have been nurturing in Winter and use the energy of Spring to move us into action so that we can bring our ideas to fruition at harvest time in the Autumn.
On this Spring Equinox, I am ready and delighted to share with you, dear readers, a project that I have been nurturing over the last few months: I am writing a book! Over the last two years, I have been going through the menopause and have struggled with the changes, both physical and emotional, that have come with it. I needed a project to help me through the somewhat turbulent transition into a new season in my life and decided to write.
I am at the very early stages of the process and my writing is slow to emerge. I am going down the self-publishing path so that I can keep complete control and make choices that reflect me and my values throughout the journey. This means there is a lot to do myself beside the writing. I am determined to enjoy all the stages to bring this book to fruition whenever it is ready to be out in the world.
The book is in part a memoir of my experience of the menopause weaving the wisdom and teaching of nature into it, in part a journey of smallholding life throughout the seasons and the natural cycles. The experience is already proving transformative and therapeutic and I can feel it is giving me what I need to move into and embrace my older years with peace, compassion and serenity.
I plan on sharing through this blog how the project develops and hope you will enjoy reading about it before the book is an actual book to hold! For now, I will tap into Nature's Spring energy to nurture my writing and let the natural world be my guide in this new journey as a budding author. It would be lovely to know that you, dear readers, will also be behind me to encourage and support me.
May you find inspiration, hope and promise in the natural world this Springtime. May the Spring Equinox bring you what you need to act, create, grow and change.
