For Everything, There Is A Season

The Northern Cascades of Washington

Since retiring, I have developed a complicated relationship with the seasons. I do not have a problem with seasons as much as with the weather accompanying them. I prefer life without cold (meaning under 40 F) or hurricanes. Towering thunderstorms with large hail, damaging winds, torrential downpours, and tornados are not my favorites either. Therefore, our travel planning begins with these “facts of life.” 

 

This avoidance of bad weather has complicated my relationships with seasons and, more generally, seasonality. For me, seasons have become something to be avoided and worked around. I try not to travel along the Gulf Coast in the Summer and Fall. After our experiences in 2024 with tornados, etc., we will likely avoid the Midwest in the Spring and Summer. We do not venture further than a few miles north of I-10 in the Winter. After our much-revised trip through California in 2023, we will not likely do much lingering there during the early Spring. And finally, after a choking, smoky trip to the PNW in 2022, we will likely avoid Washington State, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming in the Late Summer and Fall. Yes, it is complicated.

 

My Northern friends, who celebrate their winters, and my Texas friends, who relish life along the Gulf, think I am unduly influenced by my concerns about the seasons. I have watched Midwesterners calmly gather their beer and head to a shelter to wait out a nearby tornado, and my California friends shake off the wildfires, mudslides, and earthquakes as part of the price for living in paradise. They have a different perspective on seasonality. I will share some of what they are teaching me with their head shaking, eye rolling, and seasonally unadjusted and adaptive lives.

 

I have heard repeatedly that these people love the change in seasons. They see each season as a gift and the seasonality of life as the gift that keeps on giving. They enjoy the unique opportunities each season offers, sledding in Winter, fishing in the Spring, sunbathing in the Summer, and leaf peeping in the Fall. Many celebrate the bug-killing frosts of late Fall and the serenade of the tree frogs in the early Spring. They enjoy the resilience and adaptability that the change of seasons brings and feel like they have achieved something remarkable by thriving through the changing seasons. Each season allows them to share and fully experience life as it unfolds each year. The vast majority of people on Earth are quite happy living their seasonal lives. Not too many of us "chase 70 F" in nomadic lives. What have these stationary folks helped me to understand about seasonality for a year or a lifetime?

 

The San Juan Mountains

First and foremost, seasonality adds flavor to the present. Human taste buds and receptors in the nose lose their ability to detect aromas after they have been desensitized by repeated exposure. The same is true for our spirits. Too much excitement wears me out. But too much rest puts me to sleep, and I need a little excitement. Seasonality prevents us from becoming complacent in our comforts. It helps us stretch our lives into new shapes and adapt to new ways of seeing, being, doing, and living! Seasonality makes our present worth savoring!

 

Bar Harbor, Maine

The changing seasons also orient us to possibilities for the future. Life in the “Same Old, Same Old” allows our routines to morph into habits. The difference between a routine and a habit is that a habit requires no thought. Habits permit mindless living. Routines require that we stay engaged with what we are doing and look for ways that may serve us more effectively. Changing seasons takes us out of our habits and helps us to see new possibilities for living. With age, I allowed far too many routines to become habits. When something happens, and the routine is broken, I become lost, wondering how to get back on track. I lose sight of the possibilities for the future in a mindless trek from task to task. Seasonality forces me to stay engaged with the future as it unfolds rather than sleeping away my life in a mind-numbing present.

 

Washinton Co. Texas

Seasonality offers us fresh perspectives on our past. As the seasons change, we naturally pause to reflect on the life we lived before turning our face to the possibilities of tomorrow. I agree with the old wisdom: "The past is a good place to visit as long as we do not move there.” But I need to go back from time to time and remember, learn, and grow through my yesterdays. All history is written from today's perspective. Therefore, looking back on the same life period from new circumstances allows for a fresh perspective. My teenage years look far different from the point of view of a 71-year-old grandfather of teens than they did as a father of two teenage children 25 years ago. Wisdom may not necessarily come with age, but the seasons of life sure have a way of kicking us in the butt and opening our eyes. Seasonality helps us grow through our lives, with each new season offering us a different perspective on our past.

 

Does all this mean I will give up my life on the road to enjoy the seasons? Probably not. Does it mean I will head out for Winter camping in Northern Michigan? Absolutely not! However, I may add more flexibility to our travel schedule beyond the Desert Southwest and Rio Grande Valley. I may not go looking for changing seasons, but I will be more charitable toward them when they catch me unawares. I will continue to learn from those of you who enjoy your seasons.

 

I look forward to savoring the present, seeing possibilities in the future, and growing through my past. Thanks for riding along. I have much to learn, but I have excellent instructors. 

 

Travel well, my friends.

Bob

 

The Guadalupe River