The Vernal Equinox just passed, the day when the length of the day equals the length of the night. It is the day when the sun and the equator of our green marble are in the same plane. The spring equinox is celebrated by many cultures. It marks the beginning of many significant events. In my faith, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the March equinox. There are two equinoxes in each year. The autumnal equinox does not get nearly the same reverence. Time is measured now by atomic clocks. Ask someone what time it is and they look at their cellphones or the bottom right hand corner of their computer monitor. Once, time was measured by lengths of shadows and the arc of the moon or sun. When time was less easy to quantify or pinpoint, was it more precious? I imagine the ancients did not hear the tick tock of time passing.
Days were measured by the moon, the sun, the tide. Seasons were measured by the crops, the flowering trees whose blooms became fruit; the arrival of snow or rain or hurricanes. Now we follow the second hand on our watches. Our clocks are digital, so we don’t miss a minute. Our Google calendars break our days into 15 minute blocks. What, of any real worth can be done in 15 minutes or less? A pan of cookies? Singing Happy Birthday? A courthouse marriage ceremony? Last rites?