Love Every Season

The other day I ran in the cold. I wore long leggings and two layers on top. After a quick stretch, I was eager for a hot shower. After the hot shower, I slipped into my big fleece onesie, already mentally turning on the kettle, envisioning a steaming mug of peppermint tea. As I sat on the bed to pull on my thickest slipper socks, I realized I was completely unprepared for summer.

Each year, I find myself shocked at the change of the seasons. Despite living my entire life in places with four distinct seasons, I am always surprised at how miserable a winter commute can be without gloves and how dangerous a summer run in the heat of the day can feel.

And, in the depths of our seasons, when the cold or heat feels the most extreme and never ending, I find myself wondering if I’ll ever feel hot or cold again. But what surprised me about the slipper moment is that we’re at the tail end of winter. (In fact, it’s technically spring.) We’re at the tail end of winter and—even though a few days after I had this thought, it was 75 degrees and I ran in shorts and a tank top—my brain still can’t comprehend that the change I’ve experienced biannually my entire life is about to take place again. In that moment, all I could think about was curling up on the sofa under a fuzzy blanket and yet I know in 2 months time, I won’t want to look at a blanket, let alone a fuzzy one. 

Even at the tail end of winter, we forget that someday we won’t want to wear slipper socks.

But perhaps there is some cyclical beauty in this. In our darkest times, we can’t imagine there will ever be light again. In our happiest moments, despair feels like an impossibility, something that couldn’t possibly reach you. But of course this isn’t true. Of course dark can fade. Of course light can be stolen. And those changes can’t be predicted by a calendar.

So what is there to do?

Love every season.

Love the winter days when the sun barely arrives. Lean into the quiet. Make peace with the shadows. Love the summer days where a walk around the block is cause for a shower. Embrace the expansiveness. Accept the inevitability of humidity. 

How do we protect ourselves from change? We don’t try to. We meet the change. We welcome the change. We love every season.