The Spiritual Gift of Leap Day?

2 Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

sun, moon, and stars in their courses above

join with all nature in manifold witness

to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.  R

                Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

all I have needed thy hand hath provided -

great is thy faithfulness, ever to me!

This would normally be the last day of February, the curiously short month of twelve in our yearly calendar.  However, "leap year coming once in four, February then has one day more." February 29th is a sort of chiropractic adjustment for the year, ensuring that Halloween doesn't eventually end up in March, or whatever example of a skewed calendar we want to use. It is remarkable that humans have figured out how to measure the days and years as our planet, Earth, makes its way around our star, the Sun, in a yearly orbit.

There is some suggestion that employers get away with a day of unpaid work because of Feb 29, but I don't want to go down that road. 

It's also been posited that there is some sort of divine portent to Leap Day, which I don't buy. Although, I am intrigued by the thought that February 29th can be observed as a sort of big picture pause or sabbath day, a gift of 24 hours during which we might reflect, to pay attention to the importance of each day. The truth is that this would be luxury for most people as they trundle off into their daily routines. 

As a retiree I don't have an excuse not to take at least a few minutes to ponder our days on this "third rock from the sun" and to give thanks for seasons, and the planets in their courses.