Human Seasons Part Two
The fifth season
The exploration through the human seasons continues. I look back to a few weeks ago, when we discussed New Year’s as the fifth season in haiku. In the conversation of human seasons, what instantly comes to your mind when we consider a fifth season?
Since I began thinking about this concept, I have undergone many changes in my understanding of additional seasons, yet I have always maintained that grief is a season. We must define grief before we progress. Of course, we are talking about the loss of people we love, but we feel grief in a multitude of places. I would consider heartbreak a grief. Grief isn’t always a death; it is sometimes a drifting. It is the distance we find ourselves from the people we love, and the moment we realise how far apart we’ve grown is a grief. Then there are the smaller sorrows. The McDonald’s special we miss, or the restaurant we love, is shutting down. Grief, in its most simple form, is a loss of joy, no matter how small that joy is. We mourn on a spectrum, and some things require a minute to grieve, and there are things we might never stop grieving.
The counter that I was presented with during a lecture was that sorrow itself is a season. Sadness is a state of unhappiness, whereas sorrow goes beyond. To me, however, sorrow is synonymous with grief. We feel sorrow for another person’s loss and can inherit grief secondhand. Typically, I come into these newsletters with certainty and present what I have learned, but with this topic, I am continually learning and adapting it. It is also entirely personal, so instead of a strict informing, I want to give you the tools to create your own structure. Sure, grief can exist in other seasons, but would you consider this a quick shift season? When I think of growth, Spring remains the season of growth, but that doesn’t mean I don’t grow at other times; it just means that’s where I grow most. Anytime I am experiencing monumental growth, I am affirmed that I am in the human Spring. Some growth we don’t even feel or recognise until we have gone through it.
Again, we are now weeks removed from our last look at this topic. Take a note of how you’d currently define your seasons, but this time only allow yourself two words. These are mine:
Spring - Growth. Admiration.
Summer - Social. Appreciation.
Autumn - Loneliness. Hopelessness.
Winter - Creativity. Comfort
I am hard set on these four now, and my brain goes to these definitions immediately. I am a five-season man contemplating a sixth. How would you define yourself? These are some other seasons that people suggested:
Pregnancy
This one was something I had never considered. It is essentially bundling together the preparation for birth and feeling it to its fullest. It is a heavy season filled with anticipation. I picture this as early Spring.
Desire
If we compare this to a nature season, then it would be high summer. Is there a specific time in your life when you often find yourself desiring more? Where is there more hunger than in other seasons? The person who gave this season to me defined it as passion at its peak. If we follow the ruling of growth at peak for Spring and grief at peak for grief as a season, then desire must surely be one.
Love
If I were to include a fifth season to my human calendar, then it would likely be love. Although I experience it everywhere and in everything, there is definitely a time when I am fully open to falling in love with the world. It is when I most want to explore and connect. I am more observant and patient. I move more slowly through the world, but differently from the slow of winter. There is a vividness to people, places and experiences like no other.
There are endless possibilities, and it is very likely not everybody will agree with your classifications, but it is undeniable that seasons are complicated. If we focus on nature and Japanese culture, they split the year into 72 microseasons. There are 24 major divisions within this system, each split into three, for a total of 72, lasting roughly five days each. The biggest takeaway from this is that all the divisions are named, and although human seasons shift more often and don’t fit into a specific pattern, this shows the extent of the capabilities of mapping seasons. For example, the year begins with the Beginning of Spring, then moves to Rainwater, and then to Insects Awaken. Within the Insects Awaken division, you have hibernating insects surfacing, the first peach blossoms and caterpillars becoming butterflies. Take a look at the dates and the full list of seasons here.
I have a final part to write on human seasons to summarise why this is such a helpful line of thought. I want to elaborate on the comfort knowing that everything has a season, and when we cannot do something, we don’t suck, we are just in the wrong season, but until then, think of your seasons beyond the standard four. Ask your friends what season they feel they are in, talk with a loved one about this and see where the conversation takes you.
What do you classify as a fifth season?
Is there a sixth or even a seventh in your mind?
What are your thoughts on viewing the world in 72 parts?
Are you enjoying this discussion?
Talk in the comments below, or I have started a chat thread. Until next time, keep kind and stay true, Woofenberry’s.
