Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst Minister's Monthly Message

April is such a month of transitions. And to be honest, I cannot wait! It has been a long cold winter, and we haven't seen the grass in our yard in Shutesbury since mid-December or thereabouts.

I am looking forward to the bird song, and the buds and the tulip leaves pushing out of the ground. Mostly I am looking forward to being able to be outside more. Just now I went up the driveway for the mail and stood listening to the wind in the trees, looking up at the clouds in a fairly blue sky. So beautiful. But the snow is still nearly a foot deep all around me. Before it started melting recently, our driveway was akin to a tunnel, the snow piles were so deep on either side.

I get like this in the spring -- very ready to feel the earth again, put my hands in the dirt and connect to the elements of life. Some people in my family will be more than happy to tell you all about how I take my shoes off at the edge of most every body of water we have ever come across, just to feel the water on my feet. I feel connected to the whole world when I'm in the water.

My ministerial self would say that we probably need our winter times of relative isolation and reflection, just as the deciduous trees and many of our seeds and insects need the months of cold in order to be ready to come to life. It makes me wonder how people compare their yearly spiritual cycles to the changing seasons in the many parts of our world where there is no winter. They must have other metaphors for the occasional "dark night of the soul" than the cold dark days of snow and icy wind.

One of the things I like to do is find special things about each season that I look forward to and watch for. One of them is here already. When I am driving into Amherst from Shutesbury for an evening meeting in a particular part of the spring, the sun happens to be setting right in front of me as I go down the S-curves on Leverett Road, often in a most spectacular way as the rain clouds of April sweep over and past the horizon. When I lived in Pennsylvania, I watched for the Snow Drops to come up in the yard -- unfortunately in our yard now I fear I won't be seeing the gardens for a while yet! But I did see some Snow Drops at the Shohans' house last weekend when Milt and I attended the Social Supper, and those beautiful green and white blossoms were a happy sight.

I wish for each of you some special sign of spring that will put a smile on your face.

Love,

validated