Shifting Gears

Seasons change. The planet spins. Outdoor temperatures drop. Light diminishes. And for many humans a sadness slides in sideways from somewhere and sticks like thick goo in the invisible core of their being. It’s winter. The chill in the air and the dark in the sky are not warmly welcomed by all. The happy humming of summer has faded as memories do. The plucky pace of fall has waned as aging energy is wont to do. Nature shifts gears and the humans who share its life follow suit.

All things have their seasons. All life knows the surge of vibrant growth and the pull of diminishing decline. The process might be marginally mitigated but cannot be stopped; once life kicks into gear, it churns along with the years until it sputters and slows the way a tree’s sap eventually ceases to flow. So too with the seasons. They too begin and end, one more or less politely yielding to the next as if in a well-choreographed dance, the timing of which is evident only to them. Nature has its secrets and the humans who share its life do as well.

One of the benefits of being human is being teachable. We can be trained like many other animals. We can be shaped and sculpted like malleable materials manipulated by an artist’s hand. We can learn. And if the gears of our lives seem to be shifting downward, we can be conditioned to embrace and even celebrate the movement. We can train our eyes to see sparks of light in the darkness. We can teach our hearts to warm up to the air’s chill as it fulfills its purpose in the grand scheme of the universe. We can yet sing in praise of the signs of life around and within us while the shifts are silently slipping into place. And wonder of all wonders is that we may yet wonder while being confounded by the profound mystery of it all. Life. Seasons. And our peculiar place with our particular pace in the universal connectedness of the vast human race.

The speck that we are matters. The spark that we carry has purpose. The thread that we spin has significance. And whether our gears shift with grace or with malice makes all the difference. Do we hold this precious gift that is life with sturdy hope and tender gratitude? Do we seek to share it with others of our kind with the joy that is drawn from the deep well of trust? Do we embrace the patterns of peace and dance to the tempo of tolerance? Do we honor the love that lubricates the shifting of our gears season in and season out? It’s winter. Let’s wonder!