Spring Equinox a timely psychological boost of longer days and better weather

SIR,

Last weekend’s Spring Equinox, proclaiming a season of rebirth and fertility, passed relatively uncelebrated as the country wages war on the coronavirus pandemic. Like the entire country, I am preoccupied in doing my bit to delay the spread of the virus by complying proactively with the directives issued by Dr Tony Holohan and his team of experts.

Still, the Spring Equinox gave me a timely psychological boost of longer days, better weather and outdoor exercise. The trees are beginning to bloom and summer time begins on Sunday next, March 29.

Warmth, growth and greenery is returning. Birds are singing and building nests, while animals are mating and producing offspring. It’s wonderful to listen to lambs bleating in the fields and to marvel like

Wordsworth at ‘a host of golden daffodils, beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze’.

The Spring Equinox whets my appetite for exercise, sport and outdoor life. Tennyson maintains that in spring a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love. My thoughts, however, are firmly focused on victory over the Covid-19 virus, on wearing the green jersey to retain my own and the country’s good health, on returning to a normal lifestyle and on indulging my passion for sport.

The Spring Equinox makes me appreciate how good it is to be alive. Brendan Kennelly says it much better than me when he writes,

‘What constitutes a happy life?

A peaceful mind and a healthy body

No fear of death

And no desire to die’

I share that beautiful sentiment in solidarity with my fellow Irish and people the world over.

Stay safe and well, Sincerely, Billy Ryle

Spa

Tralee

In all the gloom, the Spring Equinox is a welcome ray of light .