I start with summer.  When young, I found school to be a challenge, perhaps more so than for the majority of my classmates.  Sitting still was almost beyond me.  It is important to note that education is extraordinarily important, and I’m no advocate of shirking personal responsibility when it comes to behavior, I mean only to say in my early years I learned best by doing and not when deskbound.  As I believe I’ve said before, were I born in this era I would certainly have been prescribed a pill to remedy my restlessness.  Discipline was the preferred method for solving cases like mine in my formative years.  And I understand this approach as I was a distraction to the rest of the student body, but I suppose it left a mark or two.  What does this background information have to do with summer?  For me summer was sanctuary.  With impunity I could run and climb and dig and discover.  I could walk plank above imaginary smoldering lava pits or rescue friends by making saddle with hands to help them jump wall in avoidance of menacing crocodiles.  All seemed possible.  On occasion a perfect evening of game would evolve.  When seemingly no child was called home early to satisfy an adult’s obligation.  On we would play as warm breezes set girls’ hair a-flight and as the sun journeyed for horizon the games endured until long golden rays gave way to shadowy darkness and parents were heard calling home their Jimmy’s and Janes.  I’ve experienced many pleasant summer evenings since my childhood days and value them all, but I wonder if my affection for dusk is linked to those rare endless days.

Autumn, dry crisp blue-sky autumn.  It’s hard to isolate a preferred time in this tween season.  Cool mornings give way to faux summer afternoons.  The air is accented with the sweet smell of freshly fallen leaves that provide for soft landings when raked into ponderous piles.  Orchards are full of apples as crisp and tart as the evening wind.  Halloween finds home in the fall of the year, and it ranked just next to Christmas on our anticipation scale.  And though Robert was right when he said Nothing Gold Can Stay, at least in all we see and touch, perhaps the gold we come to know in autumn never leaves our hearts.

And when old man winter pays visit, the darkness of night still holds mystery in its cold silence.  Some of my remembrances no doubt date back to when we fought sleep waiting on St. Nicholas’s arrival.  But there were other events that cemented my delight in that season’s offerings.  I’ve stood atop hill and seen snow so firmly packed from sledding traffic that it glistened in the moonlight.  My friends and I would gain running start before launching ourselves down the slope.  The runners sang click-clack, click-clack, as they traversed the icy surface, sometimes leaving terra for brief periods when Flexible Flyer flew from ramp we’d fashioned on hillside.  Eventually we would slow to a stop in the deep, soft, unpacked drifts that lived at the base of our mini mountain.  Having spent all our potential energy, we would climb again and warm ourselves by campfire before riding again.  I’ve also stood on top of real mountain watching as flakes fell thick upon a white blanket bathed in manmade light before racing toward bottom on skis waxed and sharpened.

Spring, being another transition season, is full of surprise.  One day lion the next lamb.  I recall cool windy afternoons that brought on impressive earaches, but that same wind carried with it the scent of burgeoning life that until then lay dormant.  Grass and grain, blossom and bloom, field and flower, all hinting at the warmer more colorful days to come.  Creatures human and non, feel reborn and look to mate for love and for play.  I’ve seen March temperatures that mimic June’s and I’ve seen snow fall on April flowers.  Spring keeps you guessing and what’s wrong with that?

To be sure, I’ve seen many a hard cold rain.  Sometimes the sky was clear, but still that cold rain fell for me.  I guess all who brave life will have dark days, but I hope you’ll do your best to welcome the time, the day, and the season and move forward with open heart.  I still have much to learn and need to practice what I preach, but I feel if I keep my eye on what is ahead and avoid getting stuck in any sorrow that has been, there is a chance I may depart this world with a smile.