Living the Question

Allowing time to be pushed back

Photo by Antonio Janeski on Unsplash

                                                      I dance between the unseen 
                                                      That dwells in the darkness 
                                                        And the glow of the light 

                                                       I bring the gentle glimmer
                                                         Not to banish the dark 
                                                           But to illuminate it 

                                                           For I am in balance 
                                                         Everything in my space 
                                                     Is both equal dark and light 

                                                     To unearth darks wisdoms
                                                      Is to pull through threads 
                                                     From which I might write
                                                              ~ Georg Cook

Hello you,

I’m going to start this essay with the suggestion that Time is not always linear in speed. Or rather we do not always move through time at a linear speed.

Although we move through the day, months and years and the time they occupy, according to conventional measurements. Time also eddies, pools, moves cylindrically through cycles and occasionally stops altogether. I know that is not strictly possible, but no-one thought to tell the planets this, at least if they have, their message has been lost to the expanse of space and no-one heard.

When I looked at the calendar for March, hidden amongst the vet appointments, dance gala performances, forest school dates and class photos were the words Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere - Ostara and underneath Autumn Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere - Mabon. Suddenly amongst the increasing noise of the world, there was an invitation to stop, to breathe, to honour the cycle of nature and to ask those big questions of myself and therefore I extend the invitation to say ourselves.

The timing of the Equinox is fixed. Therefore, the dates cannot be altered or changed to suit any calendar. They happen when they happen. I enjoy this fact. For someone whose mind is not always linear, with the speed at which tasks are completed and frequently takes diversions and the long way round of doing things, fixed events can be welcome anchors. I also take take comfort in the knowing that this astrological event occurs for each of us, it is not excluded from any of us. It plays out in the skies above us all.

At the Equinox then nature offers us a fleeting balance. Between the light and the dark. Where day and night are of equal length. It is a brief, momentary pause before we tip towards either summer or winter. Traditionally the Equinox is defined as the time in the Earth’s orbit of the sun when the plane of Earth’s equator passes through the geometric centre of the Sun’s disk. It is at this time of the Equinox the Earth’s axis is titled neither toward or away from the sun. Indeed the definition of Equinox is derived from two Latin words aequus meaning “equal” and nox meaning “night”.

This does not mean that the seasons are behaving. Having had a wet and mild February, March has waltzed in with frosts and fog most mornings and clear nights meaning a drop in temperature rapidly as evening draws close. Demonstrating that the shift between winter and spring is a time for extreme instability, where two seasons battle it out to reign on the landscape. Spring will win out eventually, but for now winter is not ready to fully release it grip.

Here in the Northern Hemisphere nature is waking from the deep sleep of winter, emerging from the shroud of starkness. New beginnings can be seen almost everywhere, and the light is now visible at both ends of the day. Fields, gardens, parks and hedgerows are adorned with purple and yellow crocus, primrose and wild violets. Birds are busy building nests and laying their eggs, blossom is beginning to bud in trees and daffodils with their dancing heads provide pockets of colour. The energy has returned but it is not yet at its most potent.

Ostara then is an invitation to reflect on the cycles of time within nature and this visiting balance. It is also an opportunity to allow this space where time is pushed back to the edges to open our minds and live the question. That is to allow ourselves to ask big questions and give space for the answer or answers to come to us over time by living in the question. To be outside the linear, taking the invitation from time when it has been paused.

Walking in the woods and the meadow that runs down one side this morning, I saw the first of the dumper truck sized bumble bees and listened to its noisy drone as it flexes their way into the warming air. Nature is taking flight; everything is unfolding as it should.

If you were to live the question, give yourself time to stop and then allow the answers to come to you, what question would you openly ask yourself? What would you give time to be answered?