On the Minister's Mind

Ah, it’s April – one of my favorite months of the year.  I’ve always liked April because I could see the light at the end of the school year tunnel, my favorite flowers were blooming, I could almost taste the Easter chocolates, spring break was usually part of it, and the days were noticeably growing longer. 

I was reading that the word April is from the Latin word “aperio”, which means “to open” and I find that idea of opening to be so hopeful. When something opens, it is a time of fresh beginnings and new possibilities, a period of waking up or transforming. That certainly describes the experience of nature around me in April in our hemisphere. I just want to breathe it all in.

My favorite flowers that I mentioned are tulips. Living in Atlanta for so long, and then in Seattle where tulips are famously grown in vast quantity, I grew to love tulips and the springtime of new beginnings they symbolized. Tulips grow from bulbs planted months or even years earlier, and they rise from the ground faithfully, first as pale green leaves, then bursting into vibrant color. I could hardly wait for April each year to see them again.

Sometimes it takes faith to look at the bare ground that covers the bulbs and know that the tulips will come. Visiting the tulip fields just north of Seattle in February means seeing a lot of muddy nothing, so it requires trust in the process to drive up there again in April to take in the stunning beauty of hundreds of acres of tulips in full bloom, when the sun has worked its magic.

I was introduced to a new word – apricity, which literally means “warmed by the sun.”  This is the gentle warmth of the sun that we feel as a renewing presence, even in the dead of winter. Spirit has the quality of apricity too. The light is always there, even though it may be hidden, and if we pay attention, we can feel it as it draws out greater life through us.  We can just know that our transformation is already underway. The bulbs of possibilities we planted months ago are being nourished and warmed by spiritual energy faithfully. 

As we mark the Easter holy day this weekend, let us be reminded that new beginnings always follow an ending.  It is a time to notice things emerging, awakening and bursting into expression in a bigger way.  Spring is here and so are all the symbols of new life to help us remember that we can have faith in the process of nature, of God.

May the month of April give you the feeling of apricity as you experience a vibrant blooming in your life.