An Ode to the Seasons

Time is such a strange and infinitely precious thing. How do you really measure it? By the hands of a clock? The pages of a calendar? The amount of grey hairs on your head and wrinkles on your face? It passes, no matter what you do, and no one knows how much of it they have left. Our job is to try to make the most of the time that we have.

One of the ways I feel time passing is by the seasons. Living in a place where there are four seasons, I find that each season has its own magical wonders. But sometimes my head would get so distracted, that a season would have come and gone without me really noticing it. So one day I decided to make a conscious choice to make the most out of each season, by doing the things that one can only really do in that moment in time, fully present.

The Promise of Spring

Spring is like a teasing seduction. In the beginning it’s still cold, yet not as cold as before. But everything seems dormant, away. Then suddenly the grounds is covered in patches of brightly coloured spring flowers. The sun comes out all golden, giving your cold face a hint of a warm caress. And the next moment that’s all gone and you’re back to frosty grounds and dreary skies. Was it all a mirage? Then it happens again, and again.. This time the trees start to blossom. The delicate plum blossoms that in Japan are symbolic for Bravery as they are the ones who dare bloom first. The warmth grows and stays longer this time and you know, like a feathered burlesque dance, if you are patient enough, you will get a peek at the good stuff.

With the warmth return the colours in nature, and sometimes it seems the same way with people. Spring’s seduction has an undeniably outward pulling energy which grabs a hold of your deepest core and proceeds to pull it outward with an iron force. It makes me want to sing with the birds and dance with the butterflies, and I can’t be the only one falling for this seduction each year. The streets are suddenly graced by vivacious oldtimer cars that have been hiding in garages all winter, and men seem to have gotten an extra shot of hormones that suddenly makes them hyperaware of the females that walk by. Nature feels it too as the frogs, birds and bees all get down to business. It is the promise of an explosion of life, seemingly out of nowhere.