Day 735: Monday, March 21, 2022

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

Today

By Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

From Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins

Spring is here, a time of waiting, of expectation...

Spring is here, a time of preparing new ground planting new plants nurturing new seedlings tending new shoots protecting new buds

A time of clearing out the old throwing away the tarnished discarding the wasted emptying out the junk chucking out the crap

A time of dreaming new dreams thinking new thoughts making new plans growing new goals welcoming new hope

A time of holding tight the fragile embracing the vulnerable nurturing the young becoming aware of the potential longing for summer

Time to recommit, the rest of winter is over; the glory of summer is just beginning.

Silence - reflecting on a seed held in the hand

[grow in me and through me]

Creator who birthed the world, breathe your life into us. Brother who entered the world, stretch out your hand to us. Spirit who pervades the world. fill and overflow us.

LEAP

When we are out walking we sometimes have to leap over a ditch or up a bank. Or, at work, we have to change jobs or patterns of work and this may involve quite a leap. We may even find change in our church worship. It is a jump from the known to the unknown, from the well-worn to the new. It may be a leap in faith, trusting in Spirit to hold us up and to guide us. She accompanies us as we take the risk and leap, and he will show us the way in unknown places.

SPRINGTIME

We find we are in a fresh green country which is being renewed by new life bursting out everywhere. There are still some familiar landmarks but even they look fresher. There is color, sound and bright light. The words, 'the Light of Christ' in the Easter Liturgy gives everything a new look and new life. But Spring also shows up the dust and dirt and we find we have to do some spring cleaning in ourselves so that the light can get to our darkest corners and make us wholly new.

COILED SPRING

This kind of spring is resilient. It returns to its original shape whenever it is pulled, or contracted. In us this spring might be thought of as the power of the Divine. So we can be stretched by overwork, the cares of our daily lives, responding to an emergency and God restores us to our original shape. Or, we can be sat upon, diminished in some way, and She brings us back to the shape in which She made us, and in which She wants and loves us.

SPRING OF WATER

This spring bursts out of the rocks, or from the ground beneath us and flows through the land freshening and re-vitalising as it goes. Even its sound is refreshing when we are hot and dry. It provides water to drink and to wash in.

So we come to think of Jesus at the well in Samaria and his promise to give that woman, and us, 'living water'.

'Whoever drinks the water I give her will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give her will become in her a spring of water welling up to eternal life.' (John 4:14 NIV).