This is not another “make nice about spring” column that we often come across at this time of year. But one of the few absolute and universal truisms of living a life is the promise of seasonal change. We are on the cusp of this now as I pen this column — this being the quarterly rite of passage from winter into spring. This seasonal transition is perhaps the most significant of all four seasonal changeovers in that change is everywhere we look; it is in how we dress, what we eat, how we think about time and weather, how we plan our days (especially evenings and weekends!) and how we prepare our yards, lawns, and grounds, no matter how small or grand. We’re all as busy as ever, and yet, for me, making and taking the time to observe, reflect, and reframe the very fabric of our hours is all of the essence.
We tend to think mostly good and hopeful things about winter turning to spring. There are many wonderful reasons for this — but seasonal change is not only about the weather and our natural environment. We’re blessed that beauty abounds in nature in almost every direction in Western Massachusetts. The changes that come about are life-affirming and give us good reason for our optimism. Although sometimes we cannot help doing this, we should be careful not to take these changes for granted.
Much of what we are seeing, hearing, and reading about flies in the face of the hope and joy that spring brings. We’re talking here about environmental degradation, a complete relaxing (or, more properly put, discarding) of environmental regulations, and a care-less, carefree approach and attitude toward the natural world. Even with beauty evolving all around us — almost in spite of ourselves — it’s not difficult to observe how our federal and many state governments are doing more than all they can to disturb and destroy the annual gifts that nature bestows upon us.
Earth Day — Wednesday, April 22 this year — is no longer enough to bring us back around to the critical importance of protecting and nurturing nature. We need to go about creating new rites and rituals that announce and celebrate seasonal change, this one in particular. The question for me — one that I ask myself nearly daily — is, what can I do as an individual dedicated to the flourishing of all earthly beings and the planet that supports us 24/7/365?
It’s not merely a “doing” kind of thing. Beyond engagement in activities, groups, and organizations designed to support our environments and communities, I am suggesting that we would be prudent to revisit the attitudes we carry about caring for our world. Beyond the money and time we can donate to good causes, it is also about making gifts of our holding and committing to a positive and unyielding attitude to bring our planet back from the brink of destruction.
None of this is easy, but it is more obvious when we support our planet and our natural world with our time, our money, and our engagement in activities related to care. Harder and perhaps less discernible is developing and projecting hope and positivity into springing forward. “Attitude work” is not two or 10 or even 40 hours each week — it means always holding steady in the face of withering and bewildering efforts of government, business, and “development” to destroy our natural world.
We would be wise to create rites and rituals over time that honor the incredible seasonal transitions that affect us all. The questions begin with “What” and “How.” The responses start with “I,” “Me,” “My,” “Us,” “Our” and “We.” The beginnings of our answers are about responsibility, stewardship, and accountability. Real change — the deep and most meaningful kind — comes from within the souls and psyches of human beings. To live the positive changes that we wish to see means not letting go when the going gets rough and tough, which it already has, many years ago. Rites of passage and humanly created rituals similarly come from within us. Both are based on our core values, our belief systems, and our morals and ethics. What can you commit to with regard to sharing a belief that we can alter our perceptions of the ways we co-exist within our environments and communities?
Can we possibly walk or bike a few blocks instead of the easy and too-quick car ride?
Can we communicate by letter, postcard, phone message, or email to our local senator or representative espousing our views?
Can we buy “used” once in a while whilst recycling and upcycling old/fading goods?
How about composting our food waste (while of course trying to limit it at all costs) for our or our neighbor’s gardens?
Can we (even once a year!) read a book or a document to (further) educate ourselves as to where we might be headed environmentally, thus generating knowledge and wisdom about finding “other ways”?
Translated, any or all of these can become rituals and rites if we lean into them daily, with determination and intention. Spring will still come. But we can join it with greater hope and enthusiasm and a deeper sense of connection to it, ourselves, one another, and the world-writ-large if we can will ourselves to step up and step in.
Daniel Cantor Yalowitz, Ed.D., writes a regular column for the Recorder. He in an intercultural and developmental psychologist and his most recent book, “Creating the Intercultural Field: Legacies from the Pioneers,” was released in mid-January. He writes about issues focused on human and civil rights, human values, and his ongoing commitment to create a better world for us all. Reach out to him at danielcyalowitz@gmail.com.