by Arielle Arbushites
We have been taught to think of spring as the season of beginning again. The first green things
pushing through the dirt. The longer days beginning. The windows thrown open. The feeling of
something coming back to life.
But any season and every season can ask us to begin again.
Spring might remind us that we are allowed to start over. That we are still becoming. Spring is
permission to plant something new without knowing exactly what it will become. There is
promise.
Summer might remind us to live inside the life we already have. To linger and swim. To eat
outside! To stay up a little later. Renewal isn’t about a do over. Sometimes it means remembering
that you are actually in it, in this beautiful life.
Fall might remind us we do not have to apologize for losing our leaves. We can let go of things.
There are things we can release without calling them failures. There are versions of ourselves we
can thank and then leave behind.
Winter might remind us to do something more difficult: to rest. Winter is quiet time. The roots
are still there. Not everything that looks still is stagnant. Sometimes the reset button is not a
dramatic decision, a new job, a new city, a new body, a new relationship, or a New Year’s
resolution.
Sometimes the reset button helps us to:
Go outside.
Make the coffee.
Take the long way home.
Turn off the phone.
Clean one room or even just one corner.
Say no.
Say yes.
Go to bed early.
Begin again tomorrow.
We don’t get to choose every season we are given. Some arrive with abundance or excitement or
celebration. Others arrive with grief, uncertainty, loneliness, or exhaustion.
But we can ask each season what it has to teach us and live in it temporarily.
What can I grow here?
What can I enjoy here?
What can I release here?
What needs to rest?
We can meet ourselves wherever we are, in any season and begin there.
