Spring overall. But inside us
there’s another unity.
Behind each eye here,
one glowing weather.
Every forest branch moves differently
in the breeze, but as they sway
they connect at the roots.
Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks
It is the peak of Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, and everywhere it seems like a mini festival of life. There is no fee for participating and there are no ratings or rankings. The smells of skunks are as welcome as the fragrance of jasmine or roses. If you are a plant wanting to pop up, dirt is readily available, even in the cracks of the paved streets and sidewalks. You can add a honk, gurgle, hum, or spray of seawater as you travel along your migratory path. You can be any of innumerable nuances of hues and textures – blue, green, purple, orange, ochre, sienna . . . furry, thorny, smooth, solid or light . . .
You can be any age or stage of life, or season. There is a wholeness in all. Each season is ceaselessly nourishing and present in the other. If you are a fallen leaf and dismissed as dead, the springtime breezes may lift you up and swirl you around – often helping you form an impromptu band with other such leaves so you can clatter and click together as you bounce across different surfaces. Or, perhaps you will just rest and surrender into the earth. Similarly, if you are a pine needle or twig, birds might gather you up and weave you into their nests, or let you quietly be. And, ah, if you are a shadow, likely the sunlight will awaken you out of your wintry slumber and invite you to dance from morning until night.
Even if you are invisible, you are part of this festival of life. If you are a root or bundle of roots, you are the essential resistance to the persistent pull toward upward movement. You tether the towering redwoods and tiny blades of grass. You spread and reach in all directions, forming the most ancient web of communication. You and countless microorganisms are the living underbelly of the visible. Alongside you are burrowers and tunnel-makers, and deep beneath you is the fiery heart of the planet Earth.
A steady core holds the timeless spiral of arising and releasing. Springtime playfully embodies the full spiral. While her outer appearances seem to only celebrate the bright and joyful, a deeper look reveals she relies on the companionship of darkness, loss, and letting go of her sister seasons of fall and winter. Symbiotically, they pulse together. The inner spirals also move and embody the full spectrum of emotions, including grief, gloom, and sadness, as well as those of those of joy, happiness and exuberance. The spiraling pulsebeat includes all, from the smallest atom to far beyond into the unknown vastness of the starry nights. Only the invisible, eternal central core remains steadily and peacefully untouched. As the words of Rumi were translated, “behind each eye here, one glowing weather.” May I stay anchored in that awareness.
Practice
This practice supports awareness of belonging.
Prepare—
- Please find a quiet place where you feel a sense of safety and comfort. If indoors, please remove electronics and any modern devices, including any digital watches (unless you truly need them for medical or emergency reasons).
- Gently stretch out in any way that feels comfortable. For example, reach one arm at a time overhead and toward the opposite side; or, place your hands on a cabinet, table, or back of a piece of furniture and walk, walk backward a bit and stretch out through your back.
- Find a comfortable seated position. If you are on a chair or bench, please rest the soles of your feet on the surface beneath you. If you feel distracted, invite your mind to notice your breath – inhaling in and exhaling out.
Practice—
- Wherever you are seated, gently invite awareness of the support immediately beneath you, and then slowly acknowledge the layers of support beneath whatever you are seated upon. If comfortable, silently acknowledge that the earth’s surface supports all life around the globe. Take a few moments, appreciating the interwoven fabric of earthly existence.
- Slowly shift your awareness to the space above and around you. Invite an appreciation of space always being there kissing every morsel of life. If comfortable, silently acknowledge space holding all life, including the air which we breathe. Take a few moments to appreciate the intimate touch of space, even in its vastness.
- Invite an inner feeling of a seamless community of life – beneath, above and all around you. Slowly, stretch your arms to your sides, imagining one is reaching to the north and the other to the south. Then, reach one arm forward and one to the back, imagining one is reaching to the east,and the other to the west. Next, reach your fingers toward the earth and then toward the sky, acknowledging the downward and upward directions.
- Once you have reached your arms in all directions, bring your fingers toward the place where all directions meet (at your heart center). Bow your head slightly with your fingers still touching your heart. If comfortable, appreciate your seamless belonging.
Transition Back into Your Day—
- Quietly, sit for a few moments.
- When you are ready, transition back into your day.
This poem is from Mala Of The Heart: 108 Sacred Poems, page 85, edited by Ravi Nathwani and Kate Vogt and published by New World Library. H E A R T H is written and posted by Kate Vogt each new and full moon. © KateVogt2026
