Easter

Chapter 16 of the Tao te Ching seems appropriate to the season.

Empty the self completely;
Embrace perfect peace.
The world will rise and move;
Watch it return to rest.
All the flourishing things
Will return to their source.

Until you've experienced emptying the self, you won't know what it means. The best description I can give is that all the worries, all the fears, all the inane chattering in the mind... they all stop. There is a moment of perfect stillness, where you experience yourself rather than the ten thousand distractions of daily life.

When the world returns to rest, it is winter. Perennials return to their root. Annuals die that their seeds may grow in the spring.

This return is peaceful;
It is the flow of nature,
An eternal decay and renewal.
Accepting this brings enlightenment,
Ignoring this brings misery.

Wishing does not stop the winter, nor make it end sooner. The trick is to enjoy the winter just as much as the summer. In the literal sense, I get this. In the metaphorical, I have a long way to go.

Who accepts nature's flow becomes all-cherishing;
Being all-cherishing he becomes impartial;
Being impartial he becomes magnanimous;
Being magnanimous he becomes natural;
Being natural he becomes one with the Way;
Being one with the Way he becomes immortal:
Though his body will decay, the Way will not.

The winter snows are as precious as the summer sun. The spiders as precious as the birds. Humans are equal in all this, not superior. As for the lines on immortality... I'm not going to claim I know the intended meaning there. Different translations read very differently there, too. In the spirit of the season, though, I'm going to interpret it thusly: "Summer passes away, but the cycle of seasons goes on, and summer will come again."