In this time of seeming chaos and conflict, we perhaps should stop and attend to what the planet is showing us. The planet knows that it is a time for spring and rebirth in this part of the world. No matter what may have happened during the last year, whether fire or flood, pandemic or war, nature begins again, fresh and ready to thrive and grow. It does not carry the husks of the old year with it, it simply begins again, anew, with the same assumption of growth and maturity as throughout time.
Human survival has, for millennia, been intimately connected with the renewal of nature, of new plant and animal life. And that renewal provides hope and an opportunity to let go of the failures of the preceding year and an opportunity to focus on what lies ahead as a chance, perhaps, to improve, to modify, to refocus to change priorities and methods.
That is why there have always been celebrations of the solstice, when the season shift to more sunlight than darkness, an improved growing period, an opportunity to let go of the darkness of the year before and move forward with the new work of planting and nurturing new life, of welcoming what nature is again promising to provide for our continuation on this planet. It is a renaissance, a rebirth, a renewal, basically for our benefit as part of that web of life the planet has provided for our sustenance.
Within the Christian faith, spring is also the time of Easter, a time of resurrection, a time when the most sacred part of the human soul is celebrated as being beyond the control of death. It is like the rebirth of all that is best within the human heart.
In this time of such an accumulation of problems and issues, of divisions, of constant competition, of global weapon sales, of wars and genocides, we might pause and consider a fresh start focusing on life-supporting choices, rather than on life-denying choices. It is time to plow those failed crops of ideas and systems under and allow them to decompose and become part of the soil for the new and better human choices to flourish.
It is perhaps a time to reflect on our responsibility as the human element on this planet, as we attempt to survive as a species. It is time to accept the reality of our role in the destruction of the planet, our role in the denial of human rights to all the elements of the species, our acceptance of populations to move from parts of the globe in which they can no longer survive, to parts of the globe that can sustain human life. All of our borders are artificial and laden with the judgements of those who we would like to think are superior and those we would see as inferior and therefore expendable.
Goodness knows we have made mistakes, as is part of the learning process of being human on this planet. But we need to embrace that learning and move forward. We need to let go of failed systems and attempts, of the old ways of seeing the world, of the narratives that no longer serve us, ways that are no longer relevant in the midst of new realities.
It is time to walk away for those old errors and systems, to leave the husks of what is now old and unworkable and plant the seeds of renewal, applying all the lessons we have learned to work toward a sustainable future. That means finding ways to develop cooperation, to focus on new hope, on nurturing new life, on changing our priorities and tending a new crop of human possibilities that fit into nature's plan, a plan that will allow the human species to not only survive, but to thrive.
Time for a rebirth of the human spirit.
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Hope
Emily Dickenson
HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
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