Rites Of Spring

Day 117: If the First Day of Skunk Cabbage signifies the beginning of the year, what then is the Festival of Pussywillows? My friends, it is the upbeat note on which we end the tale of Winter, the time when we close the book and consign its grey story to memory. For a few more weeks, it will command our attention occasionally, but we can push it aside with a glance at the garden space and a few envelopes of hopeful seeds. Pussywillows are a promise of light and warmth, of brown giving way to green. They are the beacon guiding us to the shovel and to the hoe, and their swelling carries the scent of freshly turned soil. Pussywillows are a cycle unto themselves, both end and beginning, come 'round to bind the loop of the year end to end with their soft, silvery stitches.