Saturday Haiku: Dandelion

 earth-bound yellow blooms
yield air-born gossamer seeds
and a child’s delight

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Photo by Charles Kinnaird

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Saturday Haiku: Oak Buds

  

dark oak buds swelling
under opaque milk-white skies –
soon boughs will be green

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Photo by Charles Kinnaird

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Saturday Haiku: Hillside Daffodils

 

hillside daffodils

the season’s first responders

others will follow

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Photo: Daffodils at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Credit: Charles Kinnaird

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Saturday Haiku: Peony Blossom

 

buds unfold
invitations sent
world dances

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Photo by Charles Kinnaird

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Saturday Haiku: Pathways

new green leaves on trees
arching over the pathway
where journeys begin

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Photo by Jilda Watson "Walking in the rain"

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Saturday Haiku: Apple Blossoms

 

white apple blossoms
current beauty, future hope
under a blue sky

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay

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Saturday Haiku: Spring Gold

 

in early spring
the oak awakens
with fleeting gold

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay

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Saturday Haiku: Spring Rains

 

every springtime rain
is a bright song to the world
of another chance

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Photo: Spring Rain (Getty Images)

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Saturday Haiku: The Arrival

  a flock of robins
keeping watch on bare branches
as springtime buds swell

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Photo by Tom Gordon

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Saturday Haiku: Mockingbird

when the mockingbird

looks out from his springtime perch

vast meadows unfold

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Photo by Charles Kinnaird



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Saturday Haiku: Signs of Spring

the redbud blossoms

are early heralds of spring

but the robin waits

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Photo by Charles Kinnaird



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Saturday Haiku: Early Steps

starting out in life

the world is full of wonder –

some steps are guided

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Image: Young grasshopper on squash leaf
Photo by Elaine Farley Kinnaird



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Saturday Haiku: Above the Mist

above the spring mist

two trees stand upon the ridge
while the forest sleeps

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Photo: "Two" by Andy Mumford
Taken in Val d’Orcia, Tuscany, Italy

From Deviant Art

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Saturday Haiku: Springtime Lake

morning breaks

beside the still lake

cherries bloom

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Image: "Lake Kawaguchi"
Artist: Tsuchiya Koitsu
Medium: Woodblock print



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Saturday Haiku: Kyobashi Bridge

springtime moon rises

pilgrims honoring Bonten

cross creation’s bridge

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Image: Bamboo Yards, Kyobashi Bridge, No. 76 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando), Japanese, 1797-1858
Medium: Woodblock print
Date: 12th month of 1857
Period: Edo Period, Ansei EraAt the Brooklyn Museum: Asian Art



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Saturday Haiku: Towhee Splashes

a towhee splashes

in the cool springtime waters

secure in his world

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Photo: Spotted Towhee bathing by Matthew Tekulsky



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Hope Is Reborn Every Spring

Myth runs deeply in any culture, even down to the very core where collective memories are held which individual minds have all but forgotten. How else can you explain the joy of Easter? In the Bible Belt of the Deep South, even conservative fundamentalists seem to have no qualms about celebrating a holiday named after the Great Mother Goddess of Northern Europe, Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). Even though the holiday was given Christian trappings centuries ago, the term "Easter" is nowhere to be found in the Bible. Easter is, after all, associated with the vernal equinox as was the ancient rite of the Mother Goddess, whose name the holiday still bears. This makes sense to us as we live within the natural rhythms of the earth. When we begin to see new life arising all around us, and we feel the chill of winter letting go, we naturally feel the hope of new life deep within us. 

The heart celebrates; the mind later tries to give meaning to the experience. It is only natural that the greatest hope that Christianity has to offer would become inexorably linked with the greatest blessing the earth has to give.

Years ago, I wrote a poem relating one Easter experience. It was something I had wanted to write about and finally found the vehicle to present it when I began writing about a snow day. As we are emerging from a cold winter, looking ahead to Easter, may the memories expressed here color your expectation as you wait. 

Southern Snowfall

                       

It was one of those rare days

When all the conditions were right

And a bright soft snow fell

All day long.

Everything was covered in beauty.

Unneeded activity came to a halt.

No hurry.

A wonderful quiet in the city.

All is well.

It will last a day (two at the most)

Then there will be mud and slush

And life as usual.

One Easter at midnight mass

I suddenly saw that everyone was aglow.

A subtle light from within

Revealed wonder in every person,

Joy in every action.

Everything was covered in beauty

And I was completely connected

(Not the usual outsider).

No doubt that all shall be well.

Life returned to normal after a day (two at the most)

Except I carried with me the realization

That what was seen only for an instant

Is always true,

Even while life goes on as usual.
                                   
                                                                  ~ CK

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Pictured: 
Top: Illustration of Ēostre by Jacques Reich, originally with the caption "Eástre."

From  Myths of the Norsemen by H.A. Guerber (1909)

Public Domain 

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Bottom: People hold candles during an Easter vigil mass in the Cathedral in Vilnius, Lithuania
Image found at Word of Technology

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Groundhog Day: A Long Tradition of Looking Toward Spring

Several years ago I was given a new insight into the origins of Groundhog Day. I was a new member of an Episcopal Church which was in the Anglo-Catholic Tradition. I was also new to all things liturgical, since I had grown up Baptist. One of the liturgical services celebrated by that church was The Feast of the Presentation, which always falls on February 2nd. At the beginning of the service, one of the choir members came to the front and began chanting the dates that were set for Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Easter. I thought it was rather unusual to be chanting what sounded like announcements upcoming church services.

Afterwards, the priest explained to me that in medieval times, the tradition was that on The Feast of the Presentation the bishop would announce the dates for Easter. Since Easter is determined by lunar dates it can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. Among agrarian cultures, is was quite vital to know when Easter would fall since everyone knew that planting should start on Good Friday. I can remember from my childhood in rural Alabama there were still many who farmed (usually to supplement their mill worker incomes). I remember the old folks swearing that you had to get your first crop planted on Good Friday.

Anyway, my priest went on to tell how Ground Hog Day was a Puritan anti-Catholic device for the New World colonists. The Puritans were so anti-liturgical, they did not want anything resembling the Feast of the Presentation, or Candlemas as it is also known. They did, however, need a way to inform the community when they could plant their crops. Hence, the concept of Ground Hog Day was implemented. Think about it, Ground Hog Day, on February 2, will let people know whether there will be six more weeks of winter. In other words, will Easter arrive in March of April?

I have to say I was amazed. I had never associated the ground hog and his shadow with how late Easter would arrive. If the priest was correct, the Puritans were successful in giving us a tradition to herald the arrival of spring that doesn’t remind us in the least of Catholic ritual, or even church. I decided to google Ground Hog Day to check out my priest’s version of its origin. I didn’t find it stated so explicitly, but on Wikipedia I saw that Ground Hog Day “bears some similarities to the medieval Catholic holiday of Candlemas” which actually harks back to an even older pagan holiday of Imbolc.

So this Ground Hog Day, you can wait in anticipation to see if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, or you can just look at the calendar to see when Easter is this year. I will say from my own planting experience, you can’t rule out a late freeze before Easter. So when you see all those flats of flower seedlings for sale, just remember to wait until Good Friday to plant anything, or you may just have to buy everything again after that late freeze kills what you put out in the yard.



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