Seasons of life

An excellent winter day to you! It's a gorgeous day, outside it looks like the Winter Wonderland again (at least where I live), it's chilly yet not too cold, and as always with winter, there's the promise of spring in the air. Or if not in the air yet, then in my heart at least.

Besides seasons when it comes to the climate and the weather and all things botanical, there are also metaphorical seasons with respect to your life. When things go well with you and you have success, you're shooting upwards - it's springtime. Your strike continues gaining altitude until it reaches a high peak - midsummer. As all successes are followed with a fall of some size - that's autumn. And then, when you reach the low point of the recent times (even if it's just the lowest of the past few weeks), you hit the heart of winter, from where you'll start climbing again.

The seasons of your life rarely follow the seasons of the calendar year, though. Your metaphorical spring might last a decade or two, if you put in the work. Your metaphorical autumn and winter might last a decade as well if you don't pick yourself up and leave the mentality of feeling sorry for yourself behind. The seasons might last only a few weeks as well - for example, you get a promotion, but realize soon after you can't perform in your new position.

One thing is certain, though: spring always follows winter, summer always follows spring, autumn always follows summer, and winter always follows autumn.

You can't have two springs consecutively - they'll be the same spring. You can't have an autumn after winter - what you thought was winter was, in fact, a longer autumn. And you can't have an autumn right after spring - you need to reach the peak point, like a ball, thrown in the air, goes up on one side of the parabola, slows down to a zero velocity at the top, and then accelerates down the other side. A sudden, abrupt change in direction without a deceleration in between would be unnatural.

So the question is: in which season do you think you are right now? How many springs and summers have you had in your recent years? Have your autumns and winters lasted longer than your springs and summers altogether?

And finally, do you think you can affect the durations of the seasons and the duration of the cycle with you own attitude, sweat, and mentality?

RK