Welcome to the start of spring! No, I haven’t completely lost my mind or my calendar. It’s just that I realized now is the time for tulips. Now is the time to put the bulbs in the ground. You see those first harbingers of new life and sunny days need to spend some time in the dark and the cold. In order to put on a springtime display of color and beauty, they need to establish themselves in a quiet darkness. 

I can sense the anxiety in the air. I hear it when I meet with friends for outdoor, socially-distanced coffee. It is a growing dread of pandemic isolation and shorter, grayer days that are coming. What if the tulips have a lesson for us this season? What if these colder, darker days are preparing us for spring? If we took the time to rest and quiet our spirits in the days ahead, what could our spring look like? If we gave our hearts and our intentions to God and allowed the Holy Spirit to brood over our very own spirits, what new and glorious creation could be growing in the darkness? 

Spring is here! We may not see it yet, but it’s here. Growing and building up energy. Waiting in the quiet earth. Readying for a new day. So let us enter this season not with dread or worry, but with the calm assurance that the new is sending out roots and gathering momentum even now. Perhaps especially now.

Amanda Atkin
Associate Minister of Faith Formation