What an amazing beginning to a really terrific month…with ornamental plum and pear and all manner of blossoming trees revealing their hidden colors, everything awakening from a deep slumber and a welcoming presence of light and heat and wonder at how easily and effortlessly things change.

We become so weary sometimes of the same old same old and then at the same time, complicated as we are, we resist the natural urge to move into the new season with a joyful heart and thanksgiving for the fallow times behind and the promise of encouragement that Spring brings with its unthawing and welcoming.

(I know, one never ends a sentence with a dangling participle yet, I ask myself, why not? If everything is changing, including the teaching of cursive writing in grade schools, the analog clock face, the definition of marriage, the weather and the season, the papacy and its historical/future relevance, the use of linear narrative in movies, the way we birth our children, and so much else, why not let a participle dangle at the end of a sentence?)

My true intent here is to ask the question, what if we were to embrace and mimic the response of Spring to us in its unthawing and welcoming by becoming more unthawed, more welcoming to the new life that is seeking our attention, and go there gladly with open hearts and available minds?

Yesterday I visited one of my students, her husband and their new baby in the hospital after they had given birth to their first baby son 18 hours prior. The sweetness of holding an 18 hour-old baby, the feeling of his gentle breathing and sweet slumber upon my chest, the silky softness of his skin and his availability  to being nurtured and loved reminded me how precious is the connection and touch we can have with one another.

Later today, I am officiating at a Commitment Ceremony for a couple of women who have been together over 10 years and are declaring today their unending devotion to one another for life.

Love comes in many pictures, in all seasons, in every way imaginable if we unthaw our rigid thinking and welcome new ways of being with one another in peace.

In this bright new month of March, with the merry month of May a couple months away, with snow still settling on the earth in parts of the country, I invite all of us inwardly to welcome the new and celebrate the wonderful journey our lives truly are!

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