Last Friday we had our (hopefully) last snow/sleet storm, and the birds hiding in the trees were angrily trilling at the little ice pellets falling everywhere.

Yesterday, I saw that my favorite cheery tree (I mean cherry tree) on the corner of K and N Capitol Streets NE had budded little, bright green leaves over the weekend.

And this weekend, we make our annual pilgrimage to the traditional source of the Potomac River outside of Davis, West Virginia to welcome the return of spring and bless the running waters that nurture our local environment.

Today, I went to the Spring Welcome program at the National Museum of the American Indian with a friend from Becoming.

Thirza Defoe (Ojibwe and Oneida Nations of Wisconsin), celebrates the spring equinox with dances from the Four Directions: Iroquois Smoke Dancing from the Haudenosaunee of the east, Eagle Dances from the southwest, Hoop dancing and Fish Dances from the north, and Round Dances from the west.

I was lucky to catch this picture of her swirling around the sacred circle in her first dance about a young, sad woman who searches through the winter to find joy in the sun at the spring equinox. As the woman lifts up her arms to greet the sun, thousands of butterflies swarm from beneath her shawl and swirl around her. How ecstatic!