Seasonal Reflections
Driving through the countryside during spring is akin to walking through a hall of mirrors - every tree, every tower, every mountain, every sunset is reflected in the standing water that fills the rice paddies. After a while, it can be hard to tell which is real and which is the reflection. There’s a metaphor there but I’m not going to go looking for it.
More importantly, the photos in this week’s issue represent the most felt transition of the spring. What I mean is, aside from the water everywhere, this week saw the weather break towards spring for the final time. It’ll be warmer and warmer from here until mid-June when we reach “oh man, it’s too hot to move” territory.
But with that change in the temperature comes a full change in attitude. Students show up to class early, sometimes even with smiles, ready to work. The streets are likewise full of people in good moods, neighbors smile and wave, everybody is walking their dog four times a day because it just feels good to be outside.
Here in the house where I’m writing this, all the windows and doors are open and the ceiling fans are getting cleaned in anticipation of their being needed real soon now. It is electrifying.
No, scratch that - it is clarifying. For myself, maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s just getting older, but I’ve found that I am calmer and more relaxed, less prone to stressing out over…everything, and more able to just not care about the things I don’t need to care about right at this minute. It’s a hard state to achieve; it’s also a hard state from which to get anything else done. And that’s fine.
I’m reminding myself that it is enough to just hang out and go for a walk with the dog because the weather is nice. I don’t actually have to be multi-tasking on eighteen other things while doing so. Which is maybe why this letter is three days late getting sent out.
Anyway, it’s spring. It’s getting really nice outside. Enjoy it.