Mar. 5, 2025 - Awakening of Insects

Today is the start of a new Seasonal Node. Each of the four seasons can be broken down into six smaller segments, called "Seasonal Nodes" (or "Solar Terms"), which come with specific instructions about what to do (and what not to do) to stay healthy and happy and harmonized with the natural world.

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It feels like not much has changed.

It's the third Node of spring, and the cold has only just begun to lift. The natural world, supposedly awakening, like insects, from winter slumber, still shows minimal signs of buzz.

For us, humans, the instructions are mostly the same as the last couple Nodes - guard the digestive system (eat gently and light), get small amounts of physical activity (mostly in the morning), start to make plans (loose ones), come out of hiding (but not too quickly).

Many are beginning to feel the need for more. But this is actually the time of less - when our ancestors' winter storage was mostly depleted, and new sustenance not yet available. Many fasting rituals happen at this time of year, vestiges of scarcity transformed into ceremonies for renewal.

What is awakening in me today is an old story.

The first thing the Nodes have taught me is that change is happening constantly. Rather than observing four dramatic changes in a year, one occurring every 90 days or so, we observe twenty-four incremental changes, once every 15 days.*

The second thing the Nodes have taught me is that the year changes very slowly. Contrasted with a two-hour movie, a one-hour show, a ten-episode season (binge-watched in a day), or even the news, Nature is dang slow.

Am I patient enough for it anymore?

There's such temptation to disappear into our culture of rapid-reward distractions, where time and tedium move delightfully quickly, but persistent and inconvenient change (to oneself) is not required.

It's an attractive offer. But it's definitely not the story that Nature is telling - the story we're meant to be a part of.

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*In fact, in the Seasonal Node system, a change is observed every five days. Each fifteen-day Node is further divided into three five-day segments. The current Node, "Awakening of Insects", is further divided into "Peach Tees Begin to Blossom" (March 5-9), "Orioles Sing" (March 10-14), and "Hawks Transform into Cuckoos" (March 15-19).