After many years of experiencing mild winters out east, I had forgotten how long Minnesota winters are. When a colleague visited New York a month ago, they mentioned the cherry blossoms in Central Park were blooming. Here in Northfield, we were in the midst of a snowstorm.
As we approach May, it feels we have finally turned a corner and joined the rest of the country. The magnolia tree by Sayles is flowering. The grass is becoming green. The temperature is no longer regularly below freezing.
In recent years, I have come to appreciate spring more. I remember walking through those cherry blossoms as covid descended on the world, and then buried us again the next spring. By then, tents had gone up elsewhere in the park to house the sick and dying. The city’s hospitals had become too full. Death felt like it was everywhere.
And yet, spring came. The cherry blossoms came. Even after the cold and dark winter, even in a time of great loss, beauty and home and life returned.
While covid is mostly behind us, our current moment offers us fresh reasons for worry, fear, and despair. Yet, just like in the past, nothing on earth can keep spring from coming. Climate change aside, spring is the annual reminder that there is a force in this universe that is stronger than any of us. No matter who our leaders are, the state of the world, or what we see in the news, spring will come.
Perhaps it is a combination of coincidence and intentionality that so many spring holidays echo these ideas. During Passover, hope comes to Israel in their darkest hour; when they are trapped as slaves in Egypt. Christians honor the death and resurrection of Jesus, a holy week that marks a journey from deep despair to life triumphing over death. Ramadan celebrates the gift of the Quran to humanity, the sacred and beautiful word of God delivered for the betterment of all.
Whether we are religious or not, spring is a sign that the universe has its own plans for the world. Spring is here, despite everything. It will be here again, next year, and the next. So too will the cherry blossoms in Central Park, the magnolia blossoms at Sayles, and the violet patches scattered around campus. May spring remind us that all winters end, that morning always follows night, and that hope and life and beauty are more powerful than the world’s despair and grief, no matter how strong they might sometimes feel.
-Rev. Schuyler Vogel
College Chaplain