Courage

spring will come--it always does

The hand-lettered intention cards on my desk. Photo: Susan J. Tweit

…Courage in the sense of the word’s roots in the old French corage, from the Latin for “heart.” True courage is strength that comes from the heart—courage that carries the power of love. It takes courage to …practice kindness in a time of hatefulness, to speak truth to power. To live with love in a world awash in fear and grief.
—Susan J. Tweit, Bless the Birds, Living with Love in a Time of Dying

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Cultivating Terraphilia, where we practice grounding ourselves in nature and this living earth as a way to draw strength and courage for whatever comes our way.

My mission is to give us all the tools and inspiration to reconnect with our terraphilia, our innate affection for and affiliation with our home planet and its interrelated web of lives. To remind us to spend time absorbing the blessings of nature in our everyday lives as a way to nurture ourselves inside and out.

Nature exposure offers a whole host of positive effects: It reduces stress, lowers our heart rates and blood pressure, alleviates depression and negative thinking, boosts our ability to focus and concentrate, and heightens our capacity for empathy, compassion and self-love. All of which we need, especially now.

Join me as we explore our terraphilia and how it can support our courageous and compassionate humanness in our everyday lives.

Imbolc: defiant herald of spring

With much of the Northern Hemisphere locked in winter weather and winter politics, it may feel like a very big stretch to celebrate spring right now. But Imbolc, the Celtic holiday that falls midway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox—February 1st this year—and is one of the four fire festivals in the Celtic spiritual year, does just that.

Imbolc recognizes the early signs of the earth reawakening: the days lengthening and steadily offering more light. The first shoots of green bravely, perhaps defiantly, spearing through the snow. Here in my valley, when winter came very late this year, the ground is still mostly snow-covered.

Yet cows are dropping wobbly newborn calves and buds are swelling on the cottonwood trees and skunkbush sumac shrubs. And I have been up in my century-old pear trees—literally up, climbing carefully from the top of my 8-foot ladder into the upper limbs—pruning decades of neglected sprouts before their sap begins to run.

Left-hand photo: Balanced in the crotch of a Sekel pear tree: whitish circles to the right of my foot showing where I've already pruned sprouts; right-hand photo, the beginnings of the pile of pruned sprouts (that's about a quarter of the total from two trees). Photos: Susan J. Tweit

All signs of spring, and also of Imbolc, which translates as “in the belly” in Irish Gaelic, for its celebration of fertility and the renewal of life. Traditional celebrations include fire offerings, whether lighting candles or whole bonfires. The day also honors the goddess Brigid, associated with blacksmithing (the art of forging metal in a fire), healing, fertility, and poetry and prophecy. Today Imbolc is celebrated in Ireland as St. Brigid’s Day, the Christianized version of the Celtic tradition.

This Sunday, February 1st, celebrate Imbolc by lighting candles or organizing a community bonfire in a safe space for fire and people to gather. Take heart from the fact that no matter how hard winter grips our Northern Hemisphere world, spring always comes. Honoring the annual miracle of that seasonal renewal helps renew the fire in our bellies too.

For more about Imbolc, read these articles in National Geographic and in Interfaith America.

Bringing the courage of Imbolc into action

Examples of spring’s renewed courage are sprouting all over from the monks walking steadily through snow and ice to Washington DC, carrying their message of peace, to the Singing Resistance movement in Minneapolis marching through neighborhoods singing songs of hope and protest.

We can’t all be the monks or sing in the streets, but we can honor those who have been killed, and support those unjustly detained or living in fear.

• Remember the nine people killed by ICE in 2026, either murdered in the streets, or killed in detention centers. Take time on Sunday to speak their names out loud, assuring they will never be forgotten:
  Alex Pretti
  Renee Good
  Keith Porter
  Heber Sanchez Domínguez
  Victor Manuel Díaz
  Parady La
  Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
  Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
  Geraldo Lunas Campos

• Donate to or volunteer for an organization in communities targeted by ICE. For Minneapolis, a place to start is the website for Stand With Minnesota, which links to various organizations and volunteer opportunities.

• Learn where ICE is in your community or state. Find a local organization to work with or donate to.
  

• Call your US senators and ask them to not fund Department of Homeland Security and ICE in the current government authorization bill. Even if you know your Senator is already voting against ICE funding, call anyway. Each call is a vote of support for the stand they are taking.

In this season of Imbolc and its reminder that spring will always return, remember the truth we know in our hearts: any country may be threatened by political movements, but a country is its people. Us. We endure and we shape what comes. We are the people. The power is in our hands and hearts.

Acting together with courage and compassion rooted in the earth we share, we can bring spring back. Always.

Blessings, Susan