Dear Biddy,

Spring’s instruction is to amass your energy and burst through old wood lying in rest, and shoot new growth.

A coming to fullness and into blossom is an act of hope, an act of promise that will bear fruit as the season turns. This season of renewal is a challenge, what has been bubbling along in the dark, now ready to leak out and reach towards the nourishing rays of light. This is a time of year when I reflect on what has been lying in waiting.

Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, maybe you emerged Biddy from winter into spring a different creature? This week I have been asked to read job applications, be a referee, support initiatives by at least two people every day! It is an honour to be a witness (and I have written a lot about witness previously).

The job seekers aspire to visibility as they put themselves into the sunlight of the marketplace. What lies in wait for them begins to be revealed in making the application. Embedded into this process is vulnerability, self- examination, the scrutiny of others and a test to travel deeper into yourself. A pilgrimage to consider the interplay between your paid labour and life’s work. David Whyte defines work as “an opportunity for discovering and shaping; the place where the self meets the world” (Crossing the Unknown Sea).

A new job anticipates a seasonal change.

And an extract from Elysium by Emily Dickson who knew a lot about arriving and beginnings reminds us that the journey from darkness to light begins with an ambiguity of who might open the door may well be preceded by steps coming towards us!

What fortitude the Soul contains,

That it can so endure

The accent of a coming Foot,

The opening of a Door!

Green shoots offer potential and respond to the invitation of the warmer weather with a “burst forth”. The vineyards cycle through the seasons around me as a constant reminder the renewal is always just around the corner.   The mornings are my spring-time, when the crisp air wakes me up after the rest of night and calls me to a new day, a new beginning. The mornings are my favourite time to read and write, to unfold into the new day. The applicants greet their new day and even if they are not successful, they are in spring for having taken steps to journey from their winter to the next season of their life.

Spring morning at Skillogalee