When my daughter was little, we celebrated Spring Equinox with a Spring Treasure Hunt game. It’s just like it sounds. To celebrate the first day of spring, we went into the forest and looked for signs of spring. At first, I created a list of things to look for—bird songs, green shoots, melting snow, ants, squirrels chittering, spiderweb.
As she got older, we looked for things on our own without the list, becoming more creative with what constitutes signs of spring—pill bugs under rocks, birds in pairs, animal tracks in the mud, skeletonized leaves, bones, hollow logs, lichen, the smell of compost, the river rushing with snowmelt.
This game was a way to connect us with the changing season, to instill a deeper connection with the natural world and how it affects us mentally, physically and spiritually, to learn how to be naturalists in our ecosystem, to get outside, to spend time together, and to have fun.
Now that she’s a teenager with a busy life of school, jobs, internships, and clubs, and would rather spend time with her friends, our spring treasure hunt is less likely to happen, at least in a traditional way—now we hunt for prom dresses, senior photoshoot locales and colleges.
My own connection with the natural world has deepened immensely as I’ve aged and sought my own healing and relationship with the living landscapes. As a nature therapy guide and a nature intuitive, my connection is instantaneous. As soon as I step foot into the forest, I am at once in communion with the ecosystem. I am in communication with the trees, the river, the butterflies and everything around me as if I were a note in a larger symphony and I only had to enter the cacophony to become part of the music. This is something I teach others to do in my courses and my writing. This way of interbeing with the other-than-human world has brought me endless joy, calm, belonging, and magic.
I still go on spring treasure hunts. This year, I noticed a robin carrying a stick in its mouth, a plethora of brown butterflies flitting in pairs, new willow buds, green grass poking through the dirt, the warmth of sunshine on my arms, a flowing spring, mud, a spider, two rabbits, a woodpecker pecking on a tree and a feeling of joy and promise.
Being in green spaces at this time of year, we immediately sense the feeling of renewal, awakening, fertility, and balance innate in this season. Allowing yourself to set aside a sacred time to simply absorb all the offerings of the natural world and join the symphony will bring you into concert with the blossoming and beauty of spring within yourself.
I invite you to celebrate the Vernal Equinox with your own Spring Treasure Hunt. I wonder what you will discover.
Here is a spring playlist to get you in the mood:
Here is a guided meditation:
Experience yourself as a seed in the earth, gently pushing through the topsoil and blossoming into full bloom. This practice is great for grounding into the earth's elements and feelings of abundance and joy.
Full Bloom Flowering Yoga Nidra on Insight Timer by Johanna DeBiase
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Love the idea of a Spring scavenger hunt! Yes, the signs are everywhere -- even in this Spring when Winter almost completely passed us by. What I've been aware of and appreciating this year is how those green shoots of grass and the leaves on the cottonwoods and elms are still unfurling -- even with so little water available, at least to my eyes. It makes me wonder about the underground reserves of water and the ways our plant friends so economically make use of whatever moisture they can find; truly, it is a miracle.