Buds are beginning to burst on trees. Alder and others in the forest are beginning to offer their seedpods and pouches of pollen. Branches and limbs that have been naked are beginning to restore their color and vibrancy again. In our back garden the Japanese plum is pushing its bold pink blossoms through the branches’ hard shell covers there to protect them from the cold. Cold is gone today. Heather is blooming in the neighborhood and a tree is starting to unfold its tulip like petals, while crocus are pushing up through the earth’s surface.

While some people have been wondering what Punxsutawney Phil saw this morning, in other cultures it’s Imbolc in the Celtic Calendar, which marks the first day of spring. Imbolc is the mid-mark between winter solstice and spring equinox. It is the time when ewes begin to birth their little wooly jumpers on the moors of Yorkshire and other regions where the wild heather is still green, waiting to bloom in the summer.

Imbolc is also the time of Brigid or Brigit, the Celtic goddess of fertility, Maiden of Spring. Fascinating legend about Brigid is that she grew up daughter of Daghda, the “Great God”, of the Tuatha de Danaan. She was a Woman of Wisdom whom poets wrote of and lore of healing and regeneration were wound about. Then she experienced a transformation, experiencing the Living Christ, she became a Nun and started her own order, a sisterhood of compassion and light. Saint Brigid or Saint Bride, is one of Compassion and Light. Outside her convent in Kildare, Ireland, the followers of Brigid’s sisterhood had a fire burning for over 500 years. Friends went there several years ago and stood in the now dormant fire pit, over eight feet deep. Holders of Light. Winter can still be harsh around the British Isles and across the Continent, just as here at home and across Asia. Yet we have glimpses and hope of spring to see us through.

We have this opportunity, to hold and carry light. In our work, in our families, in our homes, wherever we go. Holding the light, to me, means being patient and compassionate in how we think, speak, and act, in whatever we do regarding others or ourselves. We don’t have to convert to anything or turn away from anything to hold the light. We only have to be ourselves.

Interesting that the medieval Catholic Church turned Imbolc into Candlemas, though it is still a celebration of light. In Celtic tradition it remains a sacred time when the doors between the worlds remain open and miraculous and magical events can happen. A baby, full of love, giggles and laughs. A bird, a Winter Wren, fills the forest with song. Buds turn to blossoms of beauty, breaking the spell of winter.

It’s good to be alive!