Seasons Change

Summer

Summer is your best friend. Maybe you love it more than any of the other seasons, but after a few months of living together, you feel that it's time to have some space. You can look back on Summer with fond memories, and look forward to seeing it with longing and excitement. There's something so comforting and decadent about sitting outside with breakfast and a book on a warm summer's morning. Even if it's just for 15 minutes, it's like a sneaky little holiday. Summer is so inviting. It invites you to open your windows and share your home with warm, fresh air and insects (against your best wishes). The daylight lingers, and begs you and the friends you've had over for a cookout to do the same. After everyone has had their fill of food and conversation, the evening draws reluctantly to a close.

The smell of burnt charcoal lingers wit a hint of annoyance and a smile until it finally disappears with....

Autumn

Autumn is full of hope. (And, not to mention, an extra hour of sleep when the time changes). There is a slight edge in the cool, fall air, but it's an edge of anticipation. Children complain about having to return to school, while secretly looking forward to being reunited with their friends and buying shiny new notebooks (okay...so maybe it's only some of us who get excited about the notebooks). The leaves tremble in the breeze and take center stage in favorite new sweaters of burnt orange and red, until the cold gets the better of them and they reluctantly retreat to a more humble position. Not before the dramatic exit, of course. They float and twirl gracefully to the ground below where they crunch happily beneath your feet, singing the arrival of another wonderful season.

Eventually, there is the smell of the smoke drifting lazily out of chimneys into the cool, clear sky announcing the imminent arrival of....

Winter

Winter is a flake. (No, not the snow kind....the fickle kind). It's full of extremes. Daylight only shows up in short bursts and the weather can't make up its mind: it's either the most amazing, sunshiny weather you've ever seen, or the most dreary, awful, wet day you've ever had to endure. It's not just the days either. Winter begins sitting by a lovely fire, sipping a cup of hot cocoa while browsing Amazon for the perfect Christmas girts. You relish time off from work and precious moments spent with family. Then the deep depression sets in. Christmas presents, though appreciated, are lazily discarded. It's back to work (in the morning darkness) after a week and half of too much chocolate and wine. The sun moodily hides his face, obstinate that even when he shines, the earth simply refuses to be warmed.

All in all, winter can be wonderful (if it so chooses), but by the end you're exhausted and praying for...

Spring

Spring is the start of a new relationship. The first morning you're awoken by sunlight streaming through your bedroom windows might actually give you butterflies. It's all flirting and "what if". You spend hours in preparation for your encounter with warmth, cleaning on top of cupboards and behind furniture which you rarely move. You look outside, excited to court the sunshine, but find that the date doesn't go the way it did in your daydream. It's a bit colder than you expected, and the birds weren't singing nearly enough.

However, as you close the door and the sun winks at you through the glass, the butterflies return and you realize it could be the start of a beautiful thing....

Seasons change. It's a fact. And it's wonderful. Every time the seasons change I am struck by the comfort of familiarity. (Just recently, the annual "spring fever" has set in. This usually happens about March when the sun is shining and the weather no longer resembles an arctic wasteland, but I still regret going outside without a coat or wearing open-toed shoes. This has prompted the season-based blog entry).

It's a familiar feeling. It has surfaced every time the seasons change ever since I can remember. It's a reminder of the....

Conversations by the pool while smelling of Banana Boat. Wearing skirts, beach trips with friends, and eating hamburgers with the family in the air conditioning on an uncomfortably warm summer evening.

New sweaters bought when fall fashions emerge, only to find that it's still far too warm to wear them. School supply shopping and driving with the windows down just because it's not too hot.

Christmas Eve get-togethers and Christmas Day brunches....Eating pizza for Thanksgiving, non-alcoholic beer (yes, I know it's gross) and jumping on a trampoline just delivered by Santa.

Picnics and coffee in Big Spring Park. Lying in a parking lot in the rain until we were soaking wet. And getting caught skipping school (sorry, Mom and Dad) because we just wanted to be outside.

The point is, the season is changing again. It's familiar, and I feel like I have a little bit of home right where I am, and makes me smile and think of you.