Seasons

I won this baby orchid last year while celebrating my cousin’s daughter’s first birthday. The activity was to guess, out of a number of toys at the end of a quilt, which toys the daughter would crawl towards and grab. Culturally, depending on the item she would pick, it would predict what kind of occupation she would have in the future. I, however, put on my child development brain on and chose the toys that would be fluffy, cute, and bright to an infant – and those were indeed all the toys she selected. So I ended up winning this baby orchid that I have had the privilege of seeing blossom twice.

Although its petals are falling again, it has been quite impressive seeing how long the flowers have been in bloom for – almost half a year. They started blooming in the beginning of February. And at least in this part of the world where I reside, petals need to fall in order to survive winter’s shorter suns and colder temperatures.

Nature is the biggest reassurance that seasons are not only common, but normal. As much as humans try to evade and suppress the winters of their lives, these seasons need to happen. Yet at the same time, every single season is connected. In the summer, plants get so much sunlight and thus nutrition. In the autumn, plants need to prepare for winter so they begin to let go of the parts of them that do not serve them anymore that may have served the previously in summer. In the winter, there is indeed a mentality of survival, but I would probably say there is probably a mentality of rest, too, of less activity. Then in spring, plants take advantage of all the water and self-produce parts to prepare for the sun-filled summer. Each season leans on the strengths and actions of the other.

I am aware that not everywhere on this planet has four distinct seasons lasting for about the same amount of time, but at the very least, there are differences in weather, position of the earth, and position of our orbit that affects all natural life throughout the calendar year.

For us humans, for example, the ‘winter’ of grief gives us time to rest, helps us to find more joy and beauty (spring), and ultimately soak in all of the beauty (summer). But many things may remind us of our grieving, which is what autumn can represent. Not that grieving happens in four cyclical seasons, but I am partly trying to share that emotions need to run all their courses too – the ones we label as ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Trying to impose spring or summer circumstances on a plant that is clearly going through its winter state will actually end up killing it (look up ‘false spring’). The same goes for our souls – when it is clearly time to grieve or rest, the best course of action would be to let ourselves do so.

Granted, I know this is such a privileged thing to say and be suggesting. There are people with circumstances that cannot rest as they would like or as they know their body needs. However, even the ‘smallest’ things count – every small moment of reprieve, every movie or show that connects deeply to you allowing you to cry more than expected, every second of noticing beauty.

I have many thoughts on emotions and grief with the various things I have experienced as well as from my studies (currently a graduate student in counseling and guidance) that maybe I may keep sharing more. I am still trying to decide what the content of this blog will be.

Thank you for reading this far if you have ♡