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The Wheel of the Seasons has turned again and Spring is here. Okay, it's been here, so sue me. There's a lot to do in Springtime. This is the time of year I'm out there cementing in a different kind of poast, building, improving, working before the swampy heat irreversibly welds my balls to the side of my leg for a few months. It's beautiful though, isn't it? If you watch carefully, you can literally see the world come to life overnight. With Easter in the rear view mirror, it's nice to see that rebirth gets an entire season, with those celebratory feasts simply a cherry on top of a natural process that existed long before retarded humans decided to build homes and decorate them with a celebration of that fact, or find divine inspiration in that magic year after year.

Yes, I looked at my cold hardy kiwis the night before, and they were simply a bare vine. In the morning, suddenly, they're green with life, new leaf buds erupting along the entire length. This was their time, and they seized it. It never ceases to amaze me, even though every year I watch the world outside wake up at its predetermined time to blossom, and rise to the occasion, ready to bear fruit and perpetuate this gift of a world we wake up in every day.

We've talked about rebirth in Spring before, but we're not perennials in that sense. Perhaps spiritually, perhaps inspirationally, we are, at least, I know I am, but our path is a mimicry of that natural cycle. We didn't throw down seed last fall (well, hopefully some of you did, and there are some White babies on the way), and there's not a new crop of us ready to rise from the frozen Earth.

We renew ourselves in a different way. The Easter celebration, those feasts and festivals and holy days are one way that I've already mentioned. We mark the cyclical changes of life with temporal anchors that I spoke of over the Winter...but in Spring, it's more than that. This is the time of inspiration, potential, and putting down foundations for our future.

That's the part of Spring I'd like to talk about today. I renew by building. It's a cathartic experience that I would recommend most men seek out in life if they haven't already. It's a natural archetype that is a part of the mold you were formed in, and ingrained in your very being. There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of a project completed. Every year as time passes, the cycle is reborn again, but most of our creations, like us, are a year older, a year more worn down, a year more in need of attention and care. Every year, I start the Spring with a massive laundry list of things I want to do, things I need to do, things that need repair, and things that need further planning, and I force that creative energy of the season into those tasks, and bring about my own sense of rebirth. All around you, you will have the motivational growth of the living, breathing world outside your door to drive you onward to complete those things.

Does that trusty roof finally need to be replaced? Are the hinges on the barn door no longer up to the task? Is the barn, or the shed, or the garden bed, still big enough for your needs? Are you taking on a new project of some sort that needs structure to become a reality? These are all the types of things we can go over when we plan our yearly rebirth. For me, the garden must always expand. Perhaps old boxes are starting to show signs of disrepair, and it's time to rip them out and build something better in the space. Perhaps this year, you're going to add turkeys or pheasants to the poultry. Perhaps your cattle need a better shelter for rearing young, a new farrowing pen, kidding box, something that will leave this year in a better place than it was prior.

This is our rebirth, and it's a metaphor for the process we need to apply to our personal life as well. You will never be perfect, but you should never stop striving for it. Perhaps you've left a part of yourself in disrepair. Don't like your weight? Your physical prowess? Reforge yourself in the fires of effort, and become the person you want to be. Don't like how much time you spent reading or learning? Pick up the fucking book and start studying. Become reborn in new knowledge that you have always desired. You are, in many ways, that old barn. Each year, you're going to find one part of yourself gets neglected a little more than you wished, or is in need of some refurbishment, and you can let Spring be that reminder that it's time to get yourself up to speed.

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