{"id":376,"date":"2014-03-10T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=376"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:51:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:51:18","slug":"march-10-the-coming-of-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2014\/03\/10\/march-10-the-coming-of-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"March 10, the coming of Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

“In the late\u00a0<\/strong>Middle Ages<\/a><\/strong>, as\u00a0<\/strong>sermons<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0began to be given in the\u00a0<\/strong>vernacular<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0instead of Latin, the English word\u00a0lent<\/em>\u00a0was adopted. This word initially simply meant\u00a0spring<\/em>\u00a0(as in the German language\u00a0Lenz<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>Dutch<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0lente<\/em>) and derives from the\u00a0<\/strong>Germanic<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0root for\u00a0long<\/em>\u00a0because in the spring the days visibly lengthen.”<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0<\/sup>Wikipedia<\/p>\n

The English spoken in the United States is inherited from England, a blend of Anglo-Saxon (German roots) and French (from the Norman Conquest). \u00a0Our \u00a0word “Lent” comes from German\/Anglo-Saxon roots, an inheritance from northern Europe \u00a0(Wikipedia could tell of other names in other climates for this season of 40 days leading to Easter).<\/p>\n

In our climate, you might say that “Spring” means the season when trees and shrubs and flowers and grass look dead and very gradually tell the careful observer that they are coming back to life. \u00a0Very gradually. \u00a0For some years I’ve followed a ritual to remind myself about how slowly this happens: \u00a0I look for a large shrub or a low-hanging tree branch somewhere along a pathway I frequently walk. \u00a0I stop nearby, close enough that I can look at one twig on one branch from a distance of 6 to 8 inches and look at the twig for half a minute or so, paying attention to signs of rebirth. \u00a0 I try to remember to stop there 3-4 times a week. \u00a0 From day to day not much new appears. \u00a0Very gradual. Little by little this attention is rewarded by delicate hints of rebirth.<\/p>\n

Stopping and looking is a form of Lenten prayer and helps more than giving up candy or beer,\u00a0a metaphor for close watching other parts of life and waiting there in hope: a \u00a0child growing up; \u00a0a city laboring through bankruptcy; a Congress waiting to learn civility again. \u00a0A university teeming with people trying to learn, trying to teach, trying to renew it’s day to day operations. \u00a0Beauty all around us<\/p>\n

The growing length of daylight during this year’s Lent comes to about 3 minutes more light each day.<\/p>\n

March 5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ash Wednesday\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 11 hours & 28 minutes of daylight \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 April 11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Holy Saturday\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 13 hours & 27 minutes of day light<\/p>\n

Have a good day.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

p.s.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday\u00a0Weather.com<\/a> put out a list of the “10 Cities Where This Winter is a Top 5 Snowiest.”<\/p>\n

Detroit definitely made the list:<\/p>\n

Snow this season \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 83.8 inches
\nRanking: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2nd snowiest season in history
\nAll-Time record snowiest winter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 93.6 inches in winter of 1880-81
\nHeaviest snowstorm this winter \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 12.3 \u00a0inches \u00a0Dec 31 to January 2 (Storm Hercules)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In the late\u00a0Middle Ages, as\u00a0sermons\u00a0began to be given in the\u00a0vernacular\u00a0instead of Latin, the English word\u00a0lent\u00a0was adopted. This word initially simply meant\u00a0spring\u00a0(as in the German language\u00a0Lenz\u00a0and\u00a0Dutch\u00a0lente) and derives from the\u00a0Germanic\u00a0root for\u00a0long\u00a0because in the spring the days visibly lengthen.”\u00a0 \u00a0Wikipedia The English … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1059,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions\/1059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}