What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast.

This coming week includes St. Patrick's Day and the Spring Equinox. Wondering how we could connect these two, we remembered that one of our favorite poets, John O'Donohue, who just happens to be Irish, wrote a beautiful piece about the coming of spring.  

His words remind us that sometimes change and new growth seem like they will never happen, and then suddenly, just like the coming of spring, the signs of new life are everywhere. 

“Gifts From the Spring Equinox,” by John O'Donohue

"Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring. The gray perished landscape is shorn of color. Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged. Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. 

Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up. Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return. 

Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bud opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.

The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. 

Because nothing is abrupt, the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it; and then we can look nowhere without seeing it."