I’ve seen and heard a few people complaining about summer recently. We’re into some of the warmest days of the year. Of course people aren’t going to be taking that well. People like to be comfortable. They don’t like to sweat it out to the 80°C temperatures. Yeah, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
Why are we all constantly complaining about the weather? Why can’t we take time to appreciate the things that come along with each of the seasons? There’s too much negativity going around. I’m a part of it. But I want to change that a little bit. That’s why I decided to write about some of the positive takeaways from each of the year’s four seasons. For me, at least. Let’s bring some positivity into our lives, mmkay?
Spring
There’s a sort of awakening that comes with spring. We put the drab colours of winter behind us. The grey gloom, the stark whiteness of the snow, the shorter daytime… It all starts to go away. We get into that muddy time as the thaw happens, and then the first great thing of spring occurs. Things start to grow. Colour starts to pop up. You get the green grass. Flowers burst into yellows, purples, and reds. The sky feels a little bluer. This colour is like a wake-up call, breathing new life into a world waking from hibernation. I love it.
Along with the colour comes water. Lots and lots of water. I’m not a huge fan of that early spring rain. You’re still used to the cold temperatures of winter. Things haven’t warmed up yet. The rain is cold. But it brings something along with it. The thaw and the added rain of spring (usually) puts more water on the ground. Yeah, it makes things muddy. But it also brings back the waterfalls. I’m not talking a waterfall like the Niagara Falls, which tends to always be flowing. It has only frozen over once or twice since the history of this area started being recorded. No no. I’m talking the smaller waterfalls. I’m talking the waterfalls you have to seek out. The waterfalls that take a little bit of work and adventure to get to, rather than just being a drive-by attraction that you happen to be able to stand next to. All the smaller waterfalls come back to life the same way the colour does. And, boy, do I like spending time near waterfalls.
Once the water and the colour come back, the temperatures begin to warm up. It usually goes bit by bit. The average temperature goes up slightly each week. Though, I guess global warming has made that ascension more erratic than it once was. As it gets warmer, you start to shed the layers you wore all winter. The heavy coats come off and get replaced by lighter jackets or sweaters. The boots get packed away in favour of shoes. And, my favourite of the layers coming off… pants eventually get switched out for shorts. That feeling of putting on shorts for the first time of the year. Hoo-ee! That’s a feeling like few others. You have to appreciate the smaller things in life, and I truly appreciate that.
Summer
I’ve already mentioned the higher temperatures that come as spring progresses. That continues into the summer where we, normally, reach the highest temperatures of the year. I’m not here to praise the high temperatures. The heat can be a little too much sometimes. That’s why people love air conditioning. But the heat does one thing that’s great for someone like me, who likes to go out on hikes. It dries up the trails. Now, I do like me a waterfall and would love to have enough rainfall to get that water flowing. I also prefer to hike when there’s not as much mud. With the higher temperatures comes less mud, which makes hiking that much easier. It allows you to get to places that may be inaccessible when things are wet and muddy. It makes the rocks safer. All around, less mud is a better experience and summer brings less mud than spring. Plus, none of that slippery, dangerous winter ice either.
That’s not to say I want the summer to be bone dry. I enjoy
myself a thunderstorm. I like watching the dark clouds roll across the sky. I
enjoy the lightning and the thunder, as long as it’s from a distance or I’m not
outside when it’s close. I like watching and hearing the rain pour down. The
taps on the windows. The bouncing off the cars. The splashing through the
puddles. The whole aesthetic of a thunderstorm is great. I don’t want anything
more than a thunderstorm, though. The weather can refrain from hurricanes and
tornadoes and lightning that starts forest fires. I could sit by the window and
watch thunderstorms all day
long.
When there’s not a thunderstorm, however, something else I like to watch is a bonfire. Nothing speaks summer weather like a group of friends sitting around a bonfire, watching the flaming tendrils touch the night sky while they talk about anything and everything and nothing all at once. Poking sticks through marshmallows or hotdogs and roasting them over the fire. That one person who inevitably gets too inebriated and stumbles around, worrying everyone that they’ll fall into the pit. The music, the laughter, the good times. Everything about a bonfire is peak summer. Just be careful to not let the fire out of the pit.
Fall/Autumn
As summer ends and autumn begins, we all expect the temperatures to go down. The days start getting shorter. Winter is coming, as those Stark people are prone to say. Within the daylight that remains, there is still a last lingering sign of colourful beauty. As the changing weather settles in, the leaves on all the deciduous trees begin to change colour. What had been a summer of mostly green foliage turns yellow, red, orange, and brown as the trees shed their leaves. The branches hold the colours, as does the ground. There are only a couple weeks where the true beauty of these changing colours shines, but that couple weeks is one of the best stretches of the year.
With that change in colour comes the change in temperature. Things start to cool down. There’s a crispness to the breeze in the air. You need to start throwing on layers. You start small. Shorts turn to pants. But the real nice feeling is tossing on that cozy sweater. It’s sweater weather in autumn. It signifies all the best aspects of the season, all in one little event. The moment you toss on that sweater, you know that all the other things you love are going to rush right back into your life. It’s such a warming feeling.
One of those things that comes with the warm and fuzzy sweater weather is the horror movie genre. Halloween falls in October, right smack dab in the middle of autumn. Spooky season, as the cool kids call it. Horror movies are abundant. Michael Myers stalks the streets of Haddonfield. Jason Voorhees stalks the campers at Crystal Lake. You’re sitting on your couch or in the theater or at the drive-in, watching it all go down. You might be cuddled up to someone else for comfort because you’re scared of what’s happening. They could be cuddled up to you. The chills run down your spine, yet you’re entertained by it. I love horror movies. I love watching them at this time of year. They help make autumn something special.
Winter
Now that autumn is out of the way, we get to winter. The dead of winter might be one of the most depressing, bland times of the year. But there are some wonderful things that come with the season. That first snowfall of the year comes to mind. The small flakes sputtering out of the clouds, drifting their way to the ground. They might not stay on the ground. They’re delightful to watch anyway. That little bit of white among the brown and orange and yellow of late autumn. Sure, the first snowfall tends to happen in autumn. It’s associated with winter, though. People tend to talk about seasons by the weather, not by the actual times that the seasons start and end.
It's kind of like the growth of holidays. Specifically, the growth of Christmas beyond a day into an entire chunk of the year. That holiday isn’t one of my three things for winter. However, what I want to point out as a positive thing is something associated with Christmas. It’s the lights. Now, I live in Niagara Falls, a city that prides itself in light displays. There’s a whole Festival of Lights that happens every winter. During those days where the dark feels so much longer than the light, it’s nice to bring a little bit of light into the pitch black. Especially when the lights could be things like boats, moose, words of encouragement, and even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These lights are as much a part of winter as the snow and the cold, though they’re much more exciting to be around.
Speaking of the cold, one of the best feelings in the winter is sitting down with a nice cup of hot chocolate. Yum yum. It warms that chill right out of you, and it tastes good, too. I don’t know how many drab and dreary winter days have been made better by hot chocolate. I’d put mine in the hundreds. It could be regular old hot chocolate, dark hot chocolate, hot chocolate with marshmallows, or white Tim Horton’s hot chocolate with a shot of raspberry. No matter your taste preference, there’s no cozier feeling on a cold winter day than a nice hot chocolate in front of you. Okay, maybe if you drank it in front of the fireplace while the fire was burning… But you’re still drinking the hot chocolate.
And there we have it. I went through all four seasons of the year and discussed things I enjoyed about them. Of course, not the entire thing was positive. There were a couple digs in there at the coldest days of the year and the hottest days of the year. There was a dig at mud. I couldn’t help myself. The important thing is I tried something with this post. That’s a start.
There’s always a positive way to look at things. It might not be the easiest way to look at things. You might think you’ll feel better to complain. You know what? That only works for so long. Eventually, you come to the realization that you spend too much of your time complaining. You should look at things in a different light. Like things. Enjoy things. It just might pull you out of a spiral of negativity. We could all use less negativity in our lives.
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