Seasons

I’m hard pressed to choose what my favorite season is. Each has their own unique characteristics; the positives and negatives.

Spring brings forth fresh growth and a “renewed” essence to the world; it also carries with it a feeling of resilience. All of these living things have survived a cold wintery season. They’ve withstood blowing winds and below freezing temperatures, some cut off from sunlight and air. Yet when the snow melts, the burst out with a renewed energy bringing life back into the world. 

Summer brings heat and warmth, sustainability to the wild plant life across our world, providing the sunlight and warmth needed for them to strive and survive.

Fall is a saddening season of sorts, slowly as the season progresses the leaves fall from the trees and the weather slowly becomes colder. Giving everything that was once “lively” in the spring season, an air of death and silence.

Then comes winter… a season that, unless you travel south or enjoy winter sports, many dislike. It’s cold, damp and icy; making it a very dangerous season for commuters with the icy roads and blizzards. Everything becomes covered in snow and ice and the world turns into shades of white, blue and gray. This can be very depressing for most.

Personally, I love winter. Not for the sports, or because I fly south, but because it is such an “eye opening season”. You look around at a forest and see dozens and dozens of trees standing naked, covered in snow - bare. They appear to be dead, or frozen in time. Lifeless. Changing seasons are a lot like every day life. You have to survive and preserver through those dark and dreary winter months to the joyous warm and bright months ahead. Winter serves as a reminder to those that sometimes you have to trudge through the cold until you get to the warmth. Not everything is going to be easy in life.

Poet Jeffrey McDaniel wrote “I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go”.

How confident and proud trees are, to shed their beautiful leaves every fall and stand naked before us all for months on end; to withstand the cold with nothing to protect them from the thrash of the winter winds.

They stand before us, all of their flaws showing, the knots in the wood, torn bark, bare twisted branches. To many they look as though they are dying or dead statues in remembrance of something much greater. Instead, they’re gathering their strength and courage to give birth to a whole new season of green and beauty.

The changing seasons of our planet mimic the changing seasons of our lives. Day after day, year after year, we are forever changing and evolving spiritually, mentally and physically. We all have our seasons. The springs of creativity, the summers of flourishing, the falls of hurdles and the winters of sadness and struggle.

Whenever we struggle with our day to day lives, we need to look at the trees around us, and remind ourselves of how many years, generations in some cases, that these trees have wintered through. How many winters they’ve withstood. When your weathering through a winter you need to remember that you’re not dying, your life is not over. Your spring is just a season away.

We need to remind ourselves that the negative times we are currently passing through, will disappear, that our winters will turn into summers. It just takes time and patience. You will get there, don’t worry, I promise.