Snowdrops of Hope Awaken at the Beginning of February

Last Saturday Sue spent time with her women’s circle, on Zoom of course not in person. It is a key aspect of her personal spiritual practice. As a result, on Sunday, she made a whole load “St Brigid’s” crosses. Now traditionally these are green, but she made a blue for me, our colour. Little Charlie, the dog, even got one to chew on. As I left for work on Monday morning, wondering what I might explore in worship this week, she suggested I might want to buy a bunch of daffodils to add to it and brighten up my vestry. Now this may surprise some folk, but I do listen to her and did as suggested.

The “Brigid’s Cross” is a small cross woven from rushes, in this case it was coloured straws. It has four arms and woven into a square in the middle. Last Monday 1^st of February was “St Brigid’s Day” one of the patron saints of Ireland. This festival was formerly the Pagan festival Imbolc and marked the beginning of Spring. Many still celebrate it this way. The Goddess Brigid was originally one of the “Tuatha De Danann” and was adopted by The Christians in Ireland.

So last Monday was traditionally considered the beginning of Spring, there have been some signs of this, although the weather is protesting. Last Tuesday 2^nd of February was officially the end of the Christmas Season with Candlemass. Traditionally this was always the end of Christmas and not Epiphany, the 12^th day of Christmas. The Church of England actually announced that people could keep their decorations up until Candlemass this year in an attempt to keep out the January blues. We are living through unprecedented times after all and I know an awful lot of folk were grateful for this.

There was some sadness in this land as we heard the news that Captain Sir Tom Moor had sadly died. Now he certainly was wonderful symbol of hope in deeply challenging times and I am sure that his spirit of love and service will live on, despite the loss of his physical life. That though is up to us.

There have been other signs of hope too this week, suggesting the end of winter and the beginning of a new spring. On Monday morning Stephen Lingwood, minister in Cardiff, posted on “Twitter” “February will be better than January. March will be better than February”. I had the same feeling that morning too. There are small signs of hope around. There are new shoots coming through. The snow drops are everywhere. The snowdrop is considered a symbol of hope. Legend has it that they appeared as such after Adam and Even were expelled from Eden. Eve was about to give up hope that the winter would never end, but an angel appeared and transformed some snowflakes into the flower snowdrop, showing that the winter will eventually come to an end. The flower is linked to the purification associated with “Candlemass” as the old rhyme goes:

“The Snowdrop, in purest white array, first rears her head in “Candlemass” day.

There are other signs of hope too, in the middle of this long winter of life. The vaccines continue to be rolled out. So many have received theirs now. We are not at the end of this, of course we are not, but maybe there are signs of coming towards the beginning of the end. The 2nd of February is also “Groundhog Day” another sign of the measure of how long the winter is going to be. Yes I know that most of us feel like we have been living through a version of that classic movie this last 10 months. Remember of course that eventually that day does come to end and Bill Murray, in the form of the character Phil Connors is transformed and even gets the girl Andie McDowell. There are signs of hope all around us.

Sadly bad news on the Punxsutawney Phil front, the groundhog, he saw his shadow. This, according to the tradition, means six more weeks of winter. So, winter might be a little longer this year.

I had my own “Groundhog Day” experience on Tuesday as I had to make my journey to the chapel twice. Not great driving up the Washway Road twice. I arrived at my vestry and realised I didn’t have my mobile phone. I thought I must have put it down as I brought the milk in. I drove home cursing my brain and then looked around the house but couldn’t find it. I then went back to my car and there it was at the side of my seat, it had fallen out of my pocket. I laughed at my own madness and then got on with my day, filled with February thoughts of inspiration.

On Wednesday I woke up to news that made me smile broadly, it balanced out the sadness of hearing of the death of Captain Tom. The 3^rd of February is “Elmo” that loveable character from Sesame Street’s birthday. It put a broad smile on my face and as Elmo’s says “Elmo thinks it’s important to be kind because if you’re kind to somebody, then they’ll be kind to somebody, and it goes on and on and on.” We should all be more like Elmo and more like captain Tom.

This is not the end of winter, but maybe it’s the beginning of the end or at least the end of the beginning. There are seeds of hope being planted and there are new shoots all around us. Hope springs eternal and we do not seem too far from spring. The seeds are there planted beneath the earth, waiting to give birth.

Maybe there are lessons that we can learn from the patience of seeds as we wait for the spring of re-birth from this awful virus. They lay there buried, surrendered to the process that is yet to come, when they will flower and flourish for all to share. Like those seeds there is so much buried within us waiting to be born, but not today. There are signs of hope though, may we nurture them.

This brings to mind a little gem I first came across a few years ago it is taken from “Dwellings. A Spiritual History of the Living World” by Linda Hogan,

"Seed. There are so many beginnings. In Japan, I recall, there were wildflowers that grew in the far, cool region of mountains. The bricks of Hiroshima, down below, were formed of clay from these mountains, and so the walls of houses and shops held the dormant trumpet flower seeds. But after one group of humans killed another with the explosive power of life’s smallest elements split wide apart, the mountain flowers began to grow. Out of destruction and bomb heat and the falling of walls, the seeds opened up and grew. What a horrible beauty, the world going its own way, growing without us. But perhaps this, too, speaks of survival, of hope beyond our time."

Yes there are seeds of hope waiting to be born and there are shoots already showing. There are many dark days to come through, of course there are, but there is hope beyond this time, in the not too distant future. The Hope has to be there growing in our hearts and souls or we won’t plant those seeds. It does not mean there is not horror and destruction in our lives now, but nor does that horror in the present moment stop us seeing that there is goodness in our time and place. There is so much goodness and amazing work going on all around us.

We need to live in and through hope, we need to be hope, we need to say yes to life. Just because there are problems and suffering in life it does not mean we should turn away from life and lose all hope, make despair the orientation of our heart. What kills us is cynicism, giving up on the possibility of what we can make things in life.

This brings to life a quotation from Stephen Colbert a rather wonderful late night American television host of “The Late Show”, who during the presidency of Donald Trump suffered a deal of great despair at the state of his nation, but continued to live in and through Hope and humour. He said:

“Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say "no". But saying "yes" begins things. Saying "yes" is how things grow. Saying "yes" leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say "yes".”

So I say yes to life, to possibility, to the Hope in my heart. So I keep on planting seeds, despite those who tell me there is no point. For hope is, as Elizabeth Barrette says in “Origami Emotion”

“Origami Emotion” by Elizabeth Barrette

Hope is
Folding paper cranes
Even when your hands get cramped
And your eyes tired,
Working past blisters and paper cuts,
Simply because something in you
Insists on
Opening its wings.

I was thinking of this as I looked at the lovely “Brigid’s Cross” Sue and gifted to me and so many other friends and family. She had done something similar with the crystals she had given as gifts to friends and family at Christmas. Those crystals that made little rainbows from light in their homes. Rainbows of course are another symbol of hope.  Life is tough right now, yes it does feel like “Groundhog day” at times, there is much suffering, but that is not all that life is. We do not live in a state of total despair, there is much hope, I am seeing it in this February’s nature. February is better than January and March will be better than February, Stephen is correct, but we have to make it so. 

This brings to mind those final words from the film “Groundhog Day” as Phil Connors (Played by Bill Murray) finally got released from that repeated long winters Day

“When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long lustrous winter.”

There is so much that can be given birth to when we come through this long winter of all our lives. We do not have to trudge through it either. It doesn’t have to be a long slog, with heads down just repeating the same old day. It doesn’t have to be a tough old hike through life. This brings to mind a rather wonderful piece I recently came across by John Muir on hiking, titled “Sauntering”.

"Hiking - I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, "A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them."

Maybe this is a spirit that we can take into our daily lives as we keep on going through this winter. Instead of slogging through, perhaps we could saunter, as if on a journey through the holy lands of life and maybe when this is all over the seeds we plant along the way may give birth to something wonderful and beautiful. It will also most certainly help us get through the winter.

Yes, it’s a long cold winter and we are not through it yet. That said there are signs of hope all around us and there is something beautiful within us, waiting to be born, to be given birth to, in our hearts and hearths. Let us nurture them and share them with each other, encourage each other to keep on our little pilgrimages to our own Holy Lands, remembering that the holy land is the land beneath each of our feet. For everything is sacred, everything matters, every thought, every feeling, every word and every deed.