It's Spring
let's heed the season's signal for change
At the heart of the spring, there is a great inner longing. … Consequently, springtime in your soul is a wonderful time to undertake some new adventure, some new project, or to make some important changes in your life.
—John O’Donohue, Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Spirituality
Hello, Friends,
Friday marks the Vernal Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere, when the light and dark are in balance, when the length of the day is equal to the length of the night. Our hemisphere is leaving winter behind for the warmth and long days of summer. (In the Southern Hemisphere, Friday is the Autumnal Equinox, when the “equal night” heralds the beginning of fall.)
This week also brings March’s New Moon, another sign of renewal and re-birth.
The weather is frighteningly warm and dry here, yet spring beckons in the cheerful yellow blooms of the daffodil bulbs I planted last fall. My yard, neglected for decades, calls for attention. In my spare time, I’ve been working to remove the invasive weeds choking once-lovingly planned beds of spring and summer flowers.
As I dig and burn and plant, I’ve been thinking about what the Irish poet and theologian John O’Donohue wrote about this season as a metaphorical “springtime of the soul,” a season that offers an opportunity for examination of ourselves and our world, an invitation for lasting change.
Spring cleaning of the soul
With O’Donohue’s words in mind, I want to share a “spring cleaning of the soul” practice from Earthbound, my forthcoming book of weekly earth-based devotions for mindful connection in nature:
The Vernal Equinox reminds me to spring-clean my soul and examine my internal baggage, my fears and biases, the negative labels I apply to myself. To make space for positive change.
Close your eyes and imagine sweeping out the dusty corners of your spirit. What baggage lingers there? What are you carrying that impedes you?
Now consider if there an aspect of yourself that you have hidden, dismissed or disavowed that could actually be a superpower? Embrace what that aspect offers and use it to renew your sense of self.
There is a lovely phrase in Gaelic, ag borradh, that means there is a quivering life about to break forth. —John O’Donohue, Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Spirituality
Spring cleaning the world
In a time when it feels like everything we cherish is being destroyed, spring offers us the opportunity to examine and cleanse our collective baggage, to sweep out and renew our culture and our approach to living with this extraordinary planet. To clear away what no longer works and grow something new. Something positive, based on love and compassion.
I believe this worldwide spring cleaning is happening in large and small ways as individuals and communities respond to the needless and destructive wars, societal divisions, the petty hatreds and lethal tribalism, the assaults on this living Earth.
It feels as if we we are engaged in a fundamental, grassroots uprising, a quiet but powerful movement rising up against the rule of greed and selfishness, the use of fear and intimidation, and the destruction of our planetary home.
What excites me is that this transformation is happening as a communal action, in neighborhood moms organizing to drive immigrant kids to school, volunteers waiting outside detention centers to welcome and tend those released, homeowners deciding to put solar arrays on their roofs or balconies even without tax credits, farmers planting hedgerows to nurture native bees or flooding fields in winter to shelter migrating waterbirds, and communities uniting to block data center construction or unblock dams and free rivers.
This collective force for renewal is not coming with bombs and violence and “muscly super heroes in spandex,” as Rebecca Solnit puts it in an interview in The New York Times, but through “the collective effort” of folks like you and me. Solnit offers a powerful metaphor for us to use as we engage in this spring cleaning of our society and our world: caregiving.
Maybe changing the world is more like caregiving than it is like war.
—Rebecca Solnit, interview in the New York Times, 7 March 2026
Think about it: as we mend what is broken and grow the world we want to live in, we can model ourselves on caregivers, with their fierce dedication to healing.
We can tend the world through renewal and regrowth, starting with our daily actions. We can nurture our families and friends, our communities, our cultures and nations, and our planet through this transformation.
We can vote with our dollars to support businesses who epitomize our values and not support those who espouse greed and indifference. (I’m looking at you, Amazon, Tesla, Meta.) We can stand with our neighbors, practice kindness with strangers, welcome diversity, elect officials who listen and care, and respect and honor our planetary home, beginning by renewing our own homes and habits.
Caregiving—literally giving care to each other and this Earth—can quietly and steadily create a lasting revolution without bombing and bloodshed. A revolution built on love and compassion.
Whether you live in the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern, take this equinox as a sign. Let’s work together to care for and grow thriving communities, nations, and a renewed planet. Let’s “caregive” a healthier world into being.
Blessings,
Susan
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Beautifully said Susan. I love the concept of caregiving our world. It reminds me of the Buddhist principle known as ahimsa, emphasizing non-violence, compassion for all living beings, and the active avoidance of causing suffering.
I love the questions from your upcoming book and look forward to having the entire book.