Newsletter April 2026 Volume 197
Hello there,
Hope you are well.
Beltane – the Celtic holiday that marks the midway point between spring and summer is this Friday.
It is a time of new beginnings.
And in New England it finally feels like things are really shifting and spring has sprung!
Fruit trees are in flower, daffodils are still going strong and wildflowers are blooming in the woods before all the leaves come in.
I love this time of year for many obvious reasons. The plants are growing and coming alive – all the beautiful green leaves unfurling on the trees. It is so beautiful when the leaves haven’t fully opened yet and you can see their concentrated colors on the hill side. And the leaves – as they open up from their buds – are so fresh, bright and shiny.
And the bird song! I know I wrote about it last week, but the sound is so present. There is so much bird activity. Our Wren has returned again this year and is singing happily around the house. No Baltimore Oriole, yet but I am hoping I hear their song soon.
Last night there were two Barred owls hooting so loudly just outside our sleeping porch where we had the windows open!
Another reason to love this time of year. Windows open and fresh air!
Also, what a joy to have it not be pitch black when I head home from work at 7:30pm. I saw such a beautiful sunset on my way home yesterday from work.
Spring and Beltane are a time for opening up and for growth. A time for new projects – using the momentum and energy of the world around us to help us move forward and accomplish things that may have been put off or forgotten.
Beginning again is such an important concept and throughline between so much of what we endure and learn while we are being human.
I did many 10 day Buddhist silent meditation retreats before becoming a parent and feel like having meditation instructions repeated over and over instilled them in my brain.
The gentle, almost playful reminder of that the most basic tenant to begin again.
The assumption is that you will be blown off course.
You will forget all of your high ideals and intentions, you will do things that you didn’t need to do, get distracted even completely forget.
That is expected.
Because you are human.
And then when you realize you have gone off course – you notice.
And noticing it is a beneficial and auspicious thing.
Because once you notice you can stop, assess and begin again and then soon you will have another opportunity to create and complete that cycle.
The marvelous thing about knowing you will have to begin again is you don’t have to beat yourself up and get twisted about why you fell off course.
Because you noticed!
What a miracle!
What a blessing!
Now begin again.
The instructions that most resonate with me is to treat your mind like a toddler – like a sweet distracted toddler and take their metaphorical hand and gently bring yourself back into focus.
This method is much more effective and also much more pleasant than shame or scolding.
You are human, so you are just doing what a human does.
Expect it.
And begin again.
So spring is a deep reminder of this beginning again.
All around us things are starting over and we can sync up with the energy and take a moment to see what we might want to dust off and start up again or what we might want to rip out while the roots are still small to make space for what we actually want.
Take a moment to look at what you are creating.
Notice.
And if there are things you want to change then now is a time to use the momentum of the season and begin again.
Look around you, do some deep dive journaling, thinking, walking outdoors and ponder what do you want to create in this time of growing and what do you want to prune.
And then begin again.
And I Was Alive
Written by Osip Mandelstam
Translated and read by Christian Wiman
And I was alive in the blizzard of the blossoming pear,
Myself I stood in the storm of the bird–cherry tree.
It was all leaflife and starshower, unerring, self–shattering
power,
And it was all aimed at me.
What is this dire delight flowering fleeing always earth?
What is being? What is truth?
Blossoms rupture and rapture the air,
All hover and hammer,
Time intensified and time intolerable, sweetness raveling rot.
It is now. It is not.
(May 4, 1937)
Another great way to take advantage of this enlivening time of year is to come to the full flower full moon circle on Friday and join in a ritual to release and renew.
xoxo
Katherine
Come join us at the:
Full Moon Circle for the Full Flower Moon at Sanctuary on
Friday May 1st 7-8:30p
