Seasonal Calendar of a Nature Lover

Like me, many of you would, undoubtedly, characterize yourself as "nature lovers." But what do those words really mean? Well, there are different kinds of nature lovers, and my intention in today's blog post is to portray one type (mine) -- a type bound to be more plentiful, I suppose, in regions that experience four distinct seasons. This type of nature lover lives by a "seasonal calendar." It's not a calendar you hang on the wall; it's a calendar you "read" by opening your heart to nature.

Nature lovers of this sort behold the drama of the changing seasons every year as if it were being played out for the very first time -- such is our immersion in the grand performance, as the curtain closes on one act and opens on another. In fact, we identify so intimately with the drama, that we almost think of ourselves as performers in the play, rather than mere spectators. Every fall, we feel cruelly deserted as darkness waxes strong and daylight wanes. Every spring we feel "brand new." We take it all so personally.

Our seasonal calendar is thus a four-act play. We mark the year's progress less by the conventional calendar than by our own interaction with the signs of the seasons. Of course, different individuals may recognize different signs, or may ascribe greater importance to one sign than to another.

For me, spring fully arrives when I affirm the peepers' announcement of such. I commence summer with my annual trip along the coast of Maine around solstice time; I put all those daylight hours to good use, searching for, among other things, the glorious blooms of the golden chain trees. The first hint of yellow, orange or red in the (healthy) trees warns me that autumn is imminent. "Warns," I say, out of trepidation for the season that succeeds it, the season-that-must-not-be-named. But that's old news now. Spring has mercifully returned; Act IV's antagonist has no lines in Act I. Do you feel brand new again?

_{Photo of golden chain tree raceme ©2006 David Beaulieu (licensed to About.com)}