Then only, when our winter world is one
With barren earth and branches bared to bone,
Then only can the heart begin to know
The seeds of hope asleep beneath the snow;
Then only can the chastened spirit tap
The hidden faith still pulsing in the sap.
Only with winter patience can we bring
The deep-desired, the long awaited spring.
No Harvest Ripening Anne Morrow Lindbergh
This morning I was watering a houseplant, a shamrock that sits on top of the refrigerator, and as the water flowed into the pot I got this strong whiff of earth. You know how dirt smells, it’s so comforting because it brings us back to the garden, and I haven’t smelled the earth of my garden since October or November. Now it’s February, and in Celtic Spirituality, we celebrate Imbolc, it is the beginning of noticing the signs of spring. The time when the earth begins to have some glimmer of waking. Have you noticed that there is a little more light in the evening? Sometimes it’s hard to be aware of this slight change when it’s snowing, or when we have those steel gray clouds covering our skies for days and days. But there is a change - Goldfinches have been spotted at the feeder, though they are not gold yet.
Brighid is the Celtic patron or symbol of this time of year.
Brighid of the mangle, encompass us;
Lady of the Lambs, protect us;
Keeper of the hearth, kindle us;
Beneath your mantle, gather us,
And restore us to memory
-Caitlin Matthew A Blessing for Hearth Keeepers
Brighid is known for many things- a midwife, the matron of poetry, healing and crafting. When the Christian church took over Ireland they made her into St. Brigit of Kildare. There is the story of her mantle. She wanted land for her group and she asked the bishop quiet innocently if she could only have the land that could be covered by her coat. He agreed, and as she spread out her mantle and it grew and grew covering a huge tract of land. So reading the blessing above, we can imagine what being encompassed by Brigit’s mantle would mean.
Brigit also invites us to consider thresholds. They say that when women gave birth they would stand on the threshold because it was the strongest part of the house and push. The birth, a new beginning, a new life began at this space that is not really inside or outside the house. We have all lived through many threshold moments in our lives. Think about all those changes you’ve been through in your life. You’ll probably notice that these changes were not always pleasant or easy. As we step from one way of being into another way of being for a moment we hang in liminal space, a space between, waiting, hoping, striving, trying to decide if we should go back or go forward.
"So please forgive me when I say that everything that happens to us in life is a blessing — whether it comes as a gift wrapped in happy times or as a heartbreak, a loss, or a tragedy. It is true: There is meaning hidden in the small changes of everyday life, and wisdom to be found in the shards of your most broken moments. At the end of a dark night of the soul is the beginning of a new life." — Elizabeth Lesser in Broken Open