April Update: Growing Season

I’ve felt an increasing sense of dissonance these past few weeks.  I glance outside at the blossoming trees in between reading news headlines.  I celebrate the milestones of my precocious children as I contemplate how budget cuts may affect my livelihood.   I’m immensely grateful for the joy and beauty in my life, and I’m deeply afraid of all the ways it could fall to pieces.  These tensions aren’t new, but they feel especially poignant this year.

Spring is the season of growth and new life.  Holidays like Easter are marked by cheerful bunnies and colorful eggs, all evoking the hope of transformation.  But intrinsic to all this celebration of life is an acknowledgment of death.  Without death, there is no resurrection.  Without decay, there is no new growth.  Without the harsh cold of winter, there is no springtime.  It’s the natural balance of life. 

My own ability to sustain this balance can be tenuous.  When spring finally arrives, it’s tempting to brush aside the gloomier aspects of life.  I’ve made it through winter and don’t want to look back.  I’d rather enjoy my Easter flowers and candy without worrying about all the death and suffering.  I just want to be happy.  And yet, without the acknowledgment of suffering my joy starts to feel hollow.  It starts to feel like the “toxic positivity” so pervasive in self-help culture.  Avoidance of painful emotions often leads to repression and denial.  We paper over our problems with cliches like “Just think positive.”

We can’t avoid suffering by putting on a smiley band-aid, but there is a grain of truth behind the cliches. Even in the midst of grief and fear, we can choose to make space for joy.  It is possible to acknowledge the good in our lives without minimizing the pain. Suffering has always been a part of human experience, but so have gratitude, awe, and delight.  Spiritual traditions have long promoted this holistic perspective.  They offer rituals for processing our pain, while teaching us practices of hope and celebration.

At their best, our springtime celebrations are not a denial of pain.  They are enriched by our acknowledgement of suffering and death.  The power of Easter encompasses the agony of Good Friday.  New flowers emerge from the rot of last year’s garden.  Our hope is all the more tenacious for the fears we have faced head on.  Spring is growing season, and growth requires both the warmth of the sun and the cold damp soil.  If you’re seeking ways to embrace joy in the midst of pain, I hope and pray that Sacred Balance can help nurture your growth.