Month: Mar 2021

The energy of Spring

A strange thing happens when Spring starts, when the clocks go forward and when I know my birthday is on the horizon. It almost as if I reset. It’s almost like my New Year.

March is such a mix of winter and spring. We are told we can start planting, but only under cover or in greenhouses; we go on walks but be careful of mud and wind and, towards the end of the month, the clocks go forward in that archaic event that people have argued about for years.

I love March. I love the ‘coat and scarf in the morning – t-shirt in the afternoon’ weather. I like that I can get to 4pm and it’s still light outside. Even with the year pandemic and the threat of a global climate crisis looming, March still manages to hold its own.

Connecting to our environment is so important. When my girls attended nursery we were given strict instructions that they would play out in all weather and would therefore need clothes to suit the weather of the season. It’s a privilege to witness children reacting to new experiences, especially when they see rain, wind, snow and storms and begin to recognise a power beyond themselves.

Spring brings it’s own energy. Life seems easier to manage if you can see that daffodils have struggled though snow storms and still manage to blossom.

Even though the weather reporter warns of early morning ground frosts, I know it won’t be long before my seedlings can go outside.

A small posey

Usually, today my daughters and I would go to church. When they were little they would be asked if they would like to hand round small bunches of daffodils to all the ladies in the church. Every lady, regardless of whether they were a mother or not would get three or four bright nodding flowers.

They loved being these little flower girls, mainly because it was a moment of excitement in a calm service but also for the connection it gave them to people they saw every week but didn’t really know much about.

If I asked my girls why we gave flowers to ladies in church they would probably say that it was Mother’s Day and you do nice things on Mother’s Day. To an extent that’s true. But my interpretation goes deeper than that.

God is often referred to in masculine terms. Mothering Sunday is one of the few times when God’s relationship with the worldwide church is referred to. The idea is that maternal characteristics are not necessarily bound up in gender. It’s an out moded convenience that we have started to move away from.

Being able to nurture, care, seek and secure the lost, to feed and love. These are not just feminine qualities. I know plenty of male friends who are excellent ‘mothers’ in the same way that I know women who do the mother and father role by themselves.

So what is the church saying? Why are these little bunches of flowers given to women? It comes down to hope and promise. That God has powerful and gentle sides to their character. If we were truly made in the image of God, then when we stand together, attempting the be the best version of ourselves, then we will reflect small facets of God’s image.

The flowers may originally have been a pagan symbol of life, spring and all things waking up after winter. They may have been given to women because it shows the potential for new life to come into this world. But I would argue now that Mothering Sunday is less about the potential for new life and more about the attitude of love and nurture in society, regardless of who has that love or who does the nurturing. So perhaps we should give our small posies to everyone on Mothering Sunday.