Spring in Minnesota is a series of first days. The first day you open the window a crack “to let some fresh air in.” The first day you spy a random patch of brown grass in your yard, and the leaves you missed in November. The first day the morning air caresses your face, instead of cutting it. The first day you see flower seed packets at the grocery store. The first day you wonder if it’s safe to put the shovel away. The first day you hear a bird sing with joy and not as a cry for help. The first day you begin to compile the mental list of tasks to get done in the back yard. The first day you realize that you’re having dinner and the sun is still out. The first day you leave the jacket at home. The first day precipitation falls as heavy drops of clear water instead of as white crystals that signal bad roads to come. The first day you try on last year’s shorts to see if they still fit.
The weather forecasters will tell you that, meteorologically speaking, spring arrives March 1. Traditionalists who heed the heralds of the heavens, though, know we need to wait about another three weeks, for the moment when the sun seems directly above the equator, the moment it takes its first tentative steps back into the northern hemisphere. By this time, those of us in the higher latitudes are often only too happy to roll out the welcome mat, to invite the sun’s warmth back into our lives. To watch for that first forsythia bush on the block to burst into brilliant yellow song. To shed a layer or two. We have earned the right to celebrate this moment.
Come, join us at First Unitarian Society on Sunday, March 19, for our Spring Equinox Celebration and Brunch, as we embrace once again the promise of this heady season, a time that invites us, like the world around us, to bud and blossom back into life.