Spring

For Matthew.

Spring is the season for growth. It is a time of creation and discovery. It marks the beginnings of things that are not yet acknowledged, or understood. It is a season of possibilities and potential—for new projects, ventures or relationships.

Spring asks us for the curiosity to see what might be growing, and the patience to allow things the time they need to reveal themselves to us. Spring is not a time to organize, plan, or manage. We should not prune or crop things that are not yet fully grown.

We cannot summon spring by force of will: it arises in us when the conditions are right. When it arrives, it occupies the whole of us. Mind, body and spirit join to honor the life inside us. Spring can last a season, or a moment. Some of us become so intoxicated with spring that we spend a lifetime in tender budding and blossoming.

Spring brings excitement and anticipation. It can also bring bewilderment, confusion, and sometimes even fear. What is this change in us? Where has it come from? Where is it going? Spring humbles us with the understanding that we are not fully knowable, especially to ourselves. David Whyte writes this in Consolations:

Human beings are always, and always will be, a frontier between what is known and what is not known. The act of turning any part of the unknown into the known is simply an invitation for an equal measure of the unknown to flow in and reestablish that frontier: to reassert the far horizon of an individual life; to make us what we are—that is—a moving edge between what we know about ourselves and what we are about to become.

Spring renews the life in us, which seeks out change and growth. Its mechanisms are mysterious, consequential, and far larger than any one individual. Spring inspires awe.

David Whyte is an Anglo-Irish poet and author who has spent most of his working life in America. His work has taken him inside many large organizations and companies, where he has consulted and lectured on leadership and the role of creativity in business. Consolations is a lovely little book that breathes life into well-worn words. Crossing the Unknown Sea is one of my favorite books about work, and the role it plays in our lives.

Each week I explore a life metaphor that has touched me in my coaching. Subscribe to get my scribblings every Sunday morning. You can also follow me on Medium, or on LinkedIn. Feel free to forward this to a friend, colleague, or loved one, or anyone you think might benefit from reading it.