It’s a leap year which we can only participate in every four years when the month of February adds one more day.

I mentioned “participate in” because there is a little underlying excitement when February 29th comes around. It is out of the ordinary, out of the mundane.

And, it makes many of us question if your birthday or anniversary is on that day do you only celebrate it every four years?

Writing about leap year made me wonder why do we add an extra day?

A Google search brought me as far back to the time of Julius Caesar. They used the Julian calendar and knew it was a few days off from the changing seasons.

Later, during the 1500s, Pope Gregory XII and his people calculated the earth was off from their Gregorian calendar by about 11 days.

The reason for this is each year as the earth rotates around the sun its orbit is actually 365 1/4 days, which in times adds up. When this happens, for three years our calendar is off from the earth’s orbit by three quarters of a day or 18 hours. During the later 1500s, it was decided to adjust the calendar on March 11 so people went to bed and the next morning it was March 22.

We now take the leap forward by adding one more day to the month of February to keep the earth’s orbit aligned with the seasons.

This year I will be celebrating leap year attending the wedding of a young man I met years ago when my kids were at Oakview Middle School.

I always loved watching the students interacting together. Hearing them talk about their interests and watching as they tried new things.

Think about all the leaps a child makes when growing. Actually, all our lives we watch, listen and we explore. When we try something new, we take a leap from where we are to where we think we might want to end up or from what we know to what we haven’t discovered yet.

We can go from not knowing how to play an instrument to being an avid band student.

Other students might leap into track and condition themselves to leaping hurdles. Some people leave a long time job to leap into and experience a new career.

There are many times in our lives we take the leap into something new. We override our nerves and fear as we make decisions and decide to act on them.

When we decide to do something where we cannot tell what the outcome is, we are taking a leap of faith.

Visiting a new church can be like a leap of faith. It’s easy to attend a church that you have been a part of your whole life. But when you decide to look for something you might enjoy more, it becomes a leap of faith to choose a new church.

Life as a spiritual walk requires many leaps. You are always looking at who you are and how you can become a better person living a life more centered with the existence of God.

Even believing in God can be a leap of faith because you cannot prove there is a God or existence of God Energy. You cannot see God like you see a person; it’s a choice we make to acknowledge an energy greater than our self exists and that we are a part of that energy.

In this leap year, I will be taking the leap into ways that expand pathways in the brain to see what that is all about and continue to study life as a spiritual walk.

On my extra day on February 29th, I will be celebrating two loving hearts taking a leap into marriage, a new beginning that will have many leaps into the new and unknown.

But, the good news is, they will now share their 365 1/4 days on this earth every year taking leaps into the unknown with each other.

And, every four years they will have an extra special anniversary as they celebrate their real anniversary date!

Happy Leap Year!

Many blessings,

Linda La Croix

Unity Director at Unity of Lake Orion

See her Facebook page, A Spiritual Walk, or website, aspiritualwalk.com for more inspirational and uplifting thoughts.