I've just realised to my sadness I didn't notice the vernal equinox happening, mostly because I'm distracted with other stuff. It occurs to me that now I'm getting older, I find myself wanting to celebrate things like the equinox and solstice – not in a wiccan sort of way or any actual religious feeling, but just, ya know, cos the world rocks and nice spring days are a good reminder of this. Easter itself, I don't really give a damn about – probably with half the genre community who spend most of their Easters in a hotel in Heathrow or somewhere similar. But I do think I need to find my own versions of pagan celebrations, a small ritual/routine like the one I have for Halloween already. Fully thinking that when I have children I'll have to get them into some sort of daft winter-solstice wassailing that has more to do with making lots of noise and chasing away gloomy spirits than singing (although with a wife who sings, I may get diverted on that front).
It saddens me that, growing up in the country as I did, I'm now not as surrounded by greenery as I once was. Not having a few million quid around, I can't afford a large garden at Oxford prices and as much as I love being close to the city centre, it's still a loss I can feel. That may be alleviated when I get a dog and have to walk in green spaces every day, but the only religion I can feel anything for is a connection to the natural world and its rhythms. I'm not fussed about putting a religious face/name on aspects of that, but by the time I do have children I want to have developed more of a sense of a place in the world to aspire to, an understanding of that natural world connection and more of a way to describe the majesty of it. It's just a question of where I start, other than Wikipedia…
Aiming small then, eh?