The Many Seasons of Us

I'm sitting in my living room making out my list of things to do today and glancing outside to see the sunshine.  It seems that over night everything has awaken.  My heart soars seeing all the leaves budding on the trees, the green shoots of bulbs breaking ground and the first signs of grass peeking up from beneath the brown layer of death.  Spring has finally arrived.  I think you need the naked starkness of Winter to fully appreciate the bloom of Spring.  I hear so many people say that Spring and Fall are their favorite seasons ... they appreciate them because of the milder weather.  To me Spring means hope, a new beginning.  Every day new leaves appear, bulbs grow into flowers and you can see the birds and bees busy gathering the nectar and pollinating and spreading the beauty, slowly eliminating the devastation of Winter.  I have been playing with photography for a while now and looking at the pictures I took over the winter I've noticed there are no lies.  As in a black and white photo, all the flaws are visible.  The houses that have been neglected, the trees whose limbs have broken due to the heavy ice storms or strong winds, the roofs that need repairing or just replacing.  The roads with huge holes in them from the travel over the years,.  There is no camouflage, no beauty that allows you to look away and be distracted ... it's all there right in front of you, facing you.  Some of it looks tired, used and worn down almost bringing you to tears with it's reality.  Some enjoy Winter, but for me it's the saddest season, the season of death.  Everywhere you look you can't escape it.  Dark and gloomy days or days with the bright sunshine illuminating all she struck down in her path.  Once, where there was a flowerbed full of bright cheerful flowers, there is now a bed of dark, discolored mulch ... a graveyard of memories long ago nurtured and lovingly taken care of.  So we celebrate when life returns.  We open our windows and breathe in the air and the scent of the new.  We smile as we see the first blades of grass, bulbs and bushes appear.  Color has returned.  Soon the trees will be in full bloom, some of them will flower, hiding all the flaws that Winter refused to hide.  

We, too, are made of seasons.  We can only see our Winter season if we strip away the others.  We have to look beyond the outer dressing ... beyond the smiles and makeup ... deep into our souls.  How hard that is for many.  It's a time to face our harshness ...our coldness ... our prejudices ... our truths ... reality.  Do we face our flaws?  Do we embrace them and strive to repair them or do we just camouflage them with our Spring?  Do we try to live on the surface of who we are ... the smiles and beauty ... the window dressings of our soul ... the face we show the world?  Perhaps we also bring Summer out, the side of us that's all fun and sunshine.  The warm side of us.  Wouldn't it be nice to stay in Summer?  Some people get stuck in Fall, where the memories are stored.  They take them out and remember every detail of the past but refuse to move on and enjoy life again.  They just keep gathering all those memories and storing them in fear of facing Winter.  Whether it is in myself or outside my window, I have never enjoyed Winter.  I have never been able to embrace it in the outside world and can only allow myself small peeks of it at a time within myself.  Winter is harsh and cold and true ... so therefore frightening.  So, yes, Spring may be a favorite season for us all ... a new beginning ... beauty ... hope.  I stand by my earlier statement ... You can never truly enjoy Spring if you have not faced the cold, harsh, unforgiving Winter.  Only then can you see and appreciate the full bloom of Spring.