The Changing Seasons

Winter (The Director)
I fell for Winter way back in '99. One glance at her pristine beauty and crystal accomplishments, I was in love. I was young and alone back then, she taught me how to warm the cold and compete to survive. She could shear my breath with an icy gust, or enthrall me with confounding blizzards. I'd dream, and dream, and dream as I walked on her snowy blanket, past the snow angels to remember, and snowmen to build. But seasons change, and Winter rumbled on to find another lost lover to whisper her cold, cold secrets. I'm still waiting for that one frigid Winter to come around again, just to feel the stinging touch and relearn her gelid lessons.

Spring (The Builder)
Spring came with budding popularity, sunshine, and dependable rain. The zealous celebration of life, newness and delicate disaster of painfully exploding innocence, all brought me home. I danced, wrapped in nothing but showers, tromped through careful flowerbeds, and stood for today as no concern of tomorrow. She taught me how to nurture and listen, lest I miss something beautiful.  But Spring is an unpredictable season, going from lion to lamb without warning or reason. A lion passed one year, and Spring was gone, leaving only a wreath of flowers.

New Moon (An Interlude)
There's consequence to Love. Someday, if you listen carefully you'll hear it knocking at your door, asking for a cup of sugar and some answers. And maybe you'll invite it in and show the scars on your back from when you started looking for answers and borrowing sugar. Or maybe you'll just stand there, staring at the bathroom mirror and wishing the doorbell would ring. Or maybe you'll wake up and everything will be different, or everything will be gone, or maybe…

Summer (The Explorer)
Summer is a clear schedule, the keys in your pocket and a brilliant day to explore. Everyone loves summer, she shines so brightly that everyone knows her but she hardly knows herself. Even the darkest days are light and warm, the cold midnight and stars are kept away with her intense, watchful glare. I learned unyielding loyalty, and the importance of "together" from her intense sunny sessions, where a good summer day was utterly enchanting, and a bad is wholly unbearable. Sunsets and sunrises are plentiful in summer, always brilliantly scintillating and short-lived, best experienced on the beaches or lakes where you can spend it alone, together. She's the all-or-nothing organic incarnation of Bacchanal, giving and taking the desired points of life. With a flirtatious glance and a Cheshire smile I tumbled head-over-heels into hot summer love.

Autumn (The Negotiator)
Autumn is an evolving season. Uniquely celebrating the fusion from a previous life and the climax of a new, there's something sentient and spectacular about the reds, oranges and yellows as they shift through the streets and passages. I used to chase leaves as they fell, frantically trying to catch and catalog each in my butterfly net, then releasing the crowning colors back into the wild. Of course, they could never be described or fully captured in their vibrant splendor and beauty, for the traces of their previous life wove many stories over the pieces of the new. I'd walk along a wooded path, guided by the gentle rustle of an Autumnal breeze, and the muted crackle of leaves underfoot seducing my secrets until I had nothing but meaningless nothings and recollections; at which point I'd emerge refreshed and invigorated; and exposed. The quiet beauty and vibrant mystery of the Autumn season captures me, though each day more leaves fall, and the season threatens to change.