“Don’t just love a season, embrace the entire year!”
During a later afternoon walk with two boys from our church last Monday, we talked about how fun summer has been so far- our holidays in Vancouver, the random unscheduled trips to Edmonton and Saskatoon, camp, sleepovers at their “favorite pastor’s” house– when we happened to see trees with red, brown and orange leaves. I told the kids how bittersweet the ending of summer always is for me. Young Matthew agreed. No more long days, long walks, light clothing, flip-flops, random trips. I love the seasons; and fall is beautiful, but it also signals a transition to something not everyone looks forward to especially on this side of the world. Winter is nice too. But not six months of it in a year. But as one famous Canadian personality said, “You chose to live here, so suck it up!”
About a week ago, I was with the same kids and their parents driving back to town from camp. We noticed how much of trees along the road have turned yellow over the course of a week. One of them said, “I hate it that summer is almost over!” Summer. It has come, and it will soon be gone. My love affair with summer will soon be over, again! As we were coming home from a trek to the northern mountains two weeks before school started, a friend from university who knew how much I loved summer vacation wisely and hilariously said, “…well, someday then, marry a girl named Summer so you won’t ever have to say goodbye to summer!”
Having spent a chunk of my life where there aren’t much variety of seasons, I guess it takes a lot more time to condition the self for seasonal transitions. Even if I did live where four seasons are more definitively pronounced and evenly distributed throughout the year than that where I am now, reality for me is that there’s more to the year than just sunshine and rain. There could be a snowstorm in May or golf-ball-size hail in August!
Titus, the Roman philosopher, once said, “It is easier to avoid the snares of love than to escape once you’re in that net.” Each season seems so promising at the outset– the first snow fall, the first crocus blossom, the first blow of summer breeze, the color of each autumn leaf– so passionate, so intoxicating, so full of emotion, and what we may label for love at first sight. And then we find ourselves totally in it, we don’t want it to end.
“Don’t just love a season, embrace the entire year!” a wise waitress told me the other day. Good point.
