Spring forward

Writing in the late 14th century, the poet Geoffrey Chaucer began The Canterbury Tales with the idea that it is the changing season itself which provokes a desire for movement and adventure:

“Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote…

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.”

Chaucer personifies April as a gardener, whose “sweet showers” water the deepest roots of drought-stricken, barren March. In doing so, something is awakened—both in the land and in us. After the stillness of winter, there is a stirring: a quiet, persistent sense that it is time to move again.

Click here to read PHYSIS' full April newsletter.