Nature has a delightful way of evolving, growing and yet being consistent. The year starts with crisp air and a rush of resolutions in all individuals, gently inching towards a change in their way of life. As months fly past the sweet scent of budding flora wakes nature from its cold hibernation and everything is ready to literally ‘spring in joy’. The cool spring breeze turns into the harsh blazing sun and the same sunlight that gave respite now burns at full fury leaving the earth and people parched. Here again, Nature seems to have a way of bringing in the dark clouds with thunder and raindrops, enhancing the happiness in one and all. Just as months change, Nature sheds her leaves again and prepares for another season of cold and frost. The days seem shorter, the nights, longer.

Have you ever thought that our life also has seasons? Traditionally, writers and poets relate childhood to spring, ready to blossom and grow into youth that, like summer, is blazing with aspirations and desires. The move towards mid-life is like the rains, enriching and nurturing and the old age is mature and demure like the winter.

Seasons of life can also be related to the sentiments and life events that happen at any age of a person. If these life events can be related to sentiments a person may have, they can also show the capacity of each season. And it is simply beautiful that each life season means something very different at different ages and stages of life. For example, a child born prematurely, in a small NICU is in the tough season of his/her life, fighting with all the will to survive and thrive. The parents go through long days and nights of hope, the season testing the very core of their existence.

Whereas an old adult, in the final days of his/her life in the ICU is at the edge of a different season, waiting and wanting to let go of the tree of life, just as a tree sheds its leaf.

Mother Nature teaches us a big spiritual lesson here. The brown leaf that has seen the sun and the rains will eventually shed. And in place, a tiny little bud will grow, ready to blossom and weather the seasons on its own.

Life is so beautiful when we understand that people can feel the same season in differing life circumstances too. The season of spring is in anticipation when parents hold their new born for the first time. The same exalted anticipation when young students walk into their dream university for which they have worked relentlessly. The same feeling is felt by a couple at the fresh start of the relationship, ready to blossom together.

The seasons of life keep changing. Therefore, we have to learn from Mother Nature how to gracefully exit one and merge into the other. This change is always a natural progression of life, each event taking place exactly when the time is right- just as the fruit is ready when it is ripe. Not when we demand, but when the divine intervenes. It is not the easiest to move into seasons. There will be resistance because comfort also becomes a way of life.

But someday, when we have grey in our hair, and we sit outside in the tender winter sun, we will realise- that the divine hand has always been there- guiding, protecting and shielding us, thus nurturing the beautiful season of our life.