The Great Unlocking

loving what is

I’ve heard rumors that the cherry trees are blooming in D.C.  And the magnolias.  Possibly the Dogwoods.  As I look at the snow falling outside my window, IT’S A LITTLE DISCOURAGING and we can’t help wondering why we live here?

So consider this.  Taken from a commencement speech given by Kurt Vonnegut in 1978 at Fredonia State College in upstate New York.

“One sort of optional thing you might do is to realize that there are six seasons instead of four. The poetry of four seasons is all wrong for this part of the planet, and this may explain why we are so depressed so much of the time. I mean, spring doesn’t feel like spring a lot of the time, and November is all wrong for autumn, and so on.

Here is the truth about the seasons: Spring is May and June. What could be springier than May and June? Summer is July and August. Really hot, right? Autumn is September and October. See the pumpkins? Smell those burning leaves? Next comes the season called Locking. November and December aren’t winter. They’re Locking. Next comes winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold!

What comes next? Not spring. ‘Unlocking’ comes next. What else could cruel March and only slightly less cruel April be? March and April are not spring. They’re Unlocking.”

Ahhh! Maybe this is a realization that could help us.  Maybe we could change our expectations instead of taking this four season thing to heart. It doesn’t work for us living in Minnesota or any of the other latitudinally challenged states. We could consider that while the rest of the country is enjoying Springtime, we’re “Unlocking”, simply experiencing another season they don’t have.

I like the names of these additional seasons; Locking and Unlocking.  Locking season, when the temperatures start staying below freezing night and day.  We lock up the porch, the cabin, the lawnmower and the yard tools.   The trees lock down their sap, the lakes lock up their water and we are locked out of fishing until the ice is sufficiently frozen to withstand the weight of a fish house. The earth locks down and the soil is no longer diggable. The critters hibernate, freeze solid or enjoy eating each other or their food frozen.   It’s a process, a whole season of extreme cold slowly settling in.

January and February are definitely fully locked down in solid Winter.  But then in March the sun is stronger.  Melting snow during the day, freezes overnight leaving sidewalks and driveways treacherous. The trees begin unlocking and the sap flows up and down, available to be caught in buckets and boiled into sticky sweet syrup.  The water, unlocked from ice and snow,  starts flowing into rivers and filling the lakes.  The critters wake, or thaw and leave their winter beds.  And we gradually open our windows and wander outside, blinking in the sun without needing to put on our coats.

The people living south of us only get four seasons, in some cases maybe two or in the case of paradises,  only one perfect season. These are the places for us to visit in the Winter.  Whatever our reason for living here, and we must have them or we’d all move to Hawaii, family, friends and habit are mine. It’s still the hardest to live here in March. I can love it, but it requires paying close attention to the Unlocking that’s happening outside.

Sometimes in the middle of Winter, I think of what summer will be like.  The trees will be covered in green leaves, grass will be growing faster than we can mow it and flowers will bloom in shocking shapes and colors. And vice versa.  From the dock in summer, I amuse myself with the fantastical thought that in 6 months the world around me will be frozen and under a blanket of ice and snow. I love living here for the dramatic parade of all the seasons, even if it is only because it was chosen for me and I haven’t seen fit to make a different choice. But in March, when the snow has lost its charm, instead of thinking we must endure yet another month of winter, it might help to get interested in the season of the great “Unlocking”.

Be Well,

Gina