I love springtime – it carries the mood of mornings, babies and beginnings! It’s so hopeful. In the past week, I have spied pussy willows, aconite, snowdrops, green grass and yes, snowflakes as well. That’s spring; it’s a mash-up of weather.
Snow and flowers. Slush and green grass. Sunshine and wet snow or rain, especially in March, the month that ushers in Spring when the hours of daylight and nighttime come into balance. That day of balance, the Spring Equinox, is March 19th this year.
We too can find balance in March. It helps to know our temperament because temperaments respond differently to the seasons. Each season aligns with a temperament and an element; all four live in us but not in equal amounts. It takes conscious awareness and effort to balance them in our souls, no matter what is happening with the weather.
Spring coincides with the sanguine temperament and the element of air. Taking a glimpse of the rest of the year – summer coincides with fire and the choleric temperament, fall with earth and the melancholic, winter with water and the phlegmatic. Study of temperaments is interesting and elucidating. I will write more about them later.
The sanguine quality of spring has a feeling of lightheartedness, enthusiasm and joy. Each seasonal expression or temperament can be in balance or out of balance. Being out of balance in the sanguine temperament can lead to too much excitement or nervousness, a lack of focus, too much air and not enough ground. Sanguine is the overall temperament of childhood. Who has not noticed the child’s tendency toward excitement, attention that moves from one thing to another?
Personally, I must work on this in spring when the sanguine influence can throw me into a frenzy of excitement and activity.
How do we find the quality of balance in a season of expanding energy and light? Nature teaches us.
While it is still cold outside and only the tiniest flowers are popping up close to the ground, I create a spring display indoors. A tray of tender green wheat grass grows within days and colorful eggs hanging from bare branches remind me of where spring is trending, even if there is snow outside the door.
It is not yet time to store away our winter gear, although we may locate our spring coat and umbrella. When we take the weather as it comes, one day at a time, we engage in a practice of balance especially in a climate with four distinct seasons.
Yesterday was bright and sunny. I spontaneously bought a new yellow spring coat albeit one with a warm fleece lining, so tired of the black down coat I have been wearing. That is a sanguine gesture, bowing to the quality of the season. Today, it is snowing intermittent big flakes and water-y ones. I will keep the new coat in the closet, wear the down one and carry an umbrella. That’s a practical choice in alignment with winter’s phlegmatic sensibility, adapting to what is, considering comfort.
When the sun shines brightly and I look around my house, I see the windows in need of cleaning and the whole house needs dusting. The sight of it makes me want to take immediate action but a measured response is more effective; I allow myself the season of spring to complete the cleaning projects.
Nature reminds me not to kick up my heels and throw off winter’s comforting rhythms and not to expect everything that is bubbling up to get handled at once. Sitting at my computer today with a warm cup of tea, I embrace winter’s slow pace. My husband and I may stay in tonight because we are going out tomorrow night. A sunny and warm day would have pulled us to go out.
That’s how it works. Nature presents seasonal weather which is especially changeable in spring and we notice the impact on us. We choose to let it throw us out of balance or find balance within it. Complaining about the weather or blaming it for our mood leads to imbalance. It’s not a season of this or that; it’s a season of this and that, teaching us valuable life’s lessons if the season’s sanguine quality has not thrown us too out of balance to pay attention.
Attend to nature and to your soul! Seek balance even in the season that gives you the greatest challenge. We cannot change the weather, but we can change our thoughts and actions in a way that nourishes our souls.
