My unofficial almanac for this winter of 23/24, brought to you by the letter L, is that it has been the winter of listening and lamenting (so much lamenting for a world gone utterly mad). It’s been the winter of loosening and lightening. And it’s been the winter of leaning in which was all about fierce witnessing.

I carry this L sensibility into spring, the season when we dare to crack the windows open and let whatever it is that will come in to come in – light, lint, leaf hoppers – you name it. Let is a powerful, expressive, and invocative word. It’s also a contronym – one of those curious words that holds opposing meanings (ie. let (v)=allow & let (n) = obstruct). Such contradictions have been evident as we see how it is that we’ve let genocide rage, by and for an oppressed people (in whose name the world has promised: “never again”) and against another oppressed population. We have allowed this and at the same time we have hindered freedom, humanitarian aid, and the safety of innocent Palestinians in Gaza. This has been the heart-wrenching contradiction that we carry even as this earth and all beings beg for peace and a liberatory ethos to finally envelop us all like a soft blanket and warm coat.

Liberation begins at home. It begins when we fumble with the keys to unlock ourselves from whatever carceral states we find ourselves in. I’m thinking here of the quote above and of the many ways that I keep myself cocooned because let’s face it: blooming is risky business.  

Enter Spring, sashaying in as only Spring can. She’s like an adjunct professor-in-residence, here for just one semester to impart her special brand of perennial wisdom. She doesn’t care a whit about her Rate My Professor dot com ratings. She’s here to teach us limbering as a way to lift ourselves out of our hibernation and liminality.

This year, she’s doing a Zoom lecture on the fine art of Lollygagging. Yes, please…more lollygagging. I’m there for it. And yes to liveliness and libations that energize. Whatever each one of us can do to put gas in our tanks, air in our tires, and a spring in our step, I say do it because living is a capital L lot circa 2024. So, go ahead, create your own elixir for living larger or even just for some hocus pocus focus in your life. You get to let go of all that has weighed you down. You get to re-up.

Blessed Vernal Equinox, blessed be, my friends, and these words by spellcaster amb?….may they cast a Spell upon your Spring.

A SPELL FOR THE SPRING EQUINOX  
by adrienne maree brown

Let us remind the world
How many shades of green there are
How, together, we look like life itself
How tender the dirt gets in spring

Let us burst open, one multitudinous bud
Unfurled by that internal pressure of petal
Ripe, yes, and soft 
You will learn to inhale us

Let us punch up from the earth, a lava
Bright and abundant dreams of tomorrow 
Flowing molten and free
Turning ignorance to ash

Let us act like we got some roots
Know that we are held deeply
Even as we dance towards the golden breast of the sun 
life delectable again

Let us remind ourselves
That life moves ever towards life
This is the season of our nectar
Beloveds this is the season worth the sting