Here in God's Country, we had a blizzard ten days ago - over 50 cm of snow (that's about 20 inches or a foot and a half in Amurkan measure, y'all). Spring storms are nothing new. Because of the lake effect, we often get a bigger dump in milder weather. When the wind whirls from the south, it picks up moisture from Lake Superior (the biggest fresh water body in the world). Upon reaching land, this super moist air collides with a cold front sooner or later. This forces the air to release humidity rapidly. When its sooner rather than later, then it's just God's little gift to those of us that do the work of the devil.

 Better this than a hurricane, or a tornado.

Practically  almost all the fresh snow has gone, and the melting which began earlier in the season has resumed with greater haste . Small rivers run down the gutter outside my house(which is on the side of a steep slope). Potholes once again blossom, creating work for mechanics replacing struts (lil B did one of mine in auto shop last week).  Last year's dried yellow grass soaks up the sun. I eagerly anticipate my new crop of tulips, if the squirrels did not eat all my bulbs last fall.

 The air hums with the promise of new life, new opportunities, new beginnings. No matter how bad the winter was, just like my farming ancestors, I believe a good year awaits. Spring brings the promise of boundless harvests.

 I call my corner of the world "God's country". Though I joke about doing the devil's work, I am more than nominally christian. I am certainly no fundamentalist or literalist, and my beliefs may waver and mutate, but  even if the Bible is a collection of myths and fables, to me it has value as a source of lessons about what makes us all human.

In my faith, I seek to include, not exclude. Though I label myself christian, as I sit here on Good Friday, ruminating upon what this day, and this season, means to me, my faith is reinforced, not challenged, by other religions. Pretty much every faith I know of includes a major celebration of spring in its calendar. Christians have Easter ( the rebirth of Christ, marking god's new covenant), Jews passover making their freedom, Buddhists New Year, Muslims celebrate the birth of Muhammad,  or, in the east, the Zoroastrian based Nouroz - celebrating the triumph of light over dark, the reawakening of nature.

 This  suggests to me that it is human nature to celebrate Spring, each in our own way. The long dark winter of our discontent is ended. Our challenge now is to go forward each day, with renewed spirit, with warmth in our hearts and our soul. Let this light drive out the dark in our lives, banish fear and anger and hate. I am not saying we should be naive and believe that we can ever win the war against the forces of darkness entirely - decay is inevitable, evil is always with us. Our victory is in fighting evil ever day, in whatever way we are able.

 Because this victory is never complete, it is difficult to dare to pause, to rest and appreciate our individual and collective contributions made each day. I suggest that the prevalence of spring feasts is  in large measure our collective sigh of relief, our triumph over winter (that symbol of death), and our regathering of energy to toil once more. no matter what awaits in our lives, this weekend, we should celebrate, each in our own way.

Celebrate nature. Celebrate humanity. Celebrate love. Celebrate new beginnings. Celebrate survival. Celebrate Spring.