Seasonal Change

It's time for school!

Whether you're in high school, college, or already out of school, it's time to go back to school. Or, at least everywhere you turn it looks like it's time to go back to school. Stores have Back to School Sales and those who don't go to school anymore take advantage of the cheap office supplies and stock up for the winter.

Much like that, we know it's time for school to start because the season begins to change. From the hot days of summer comes the cooler days of autumn. Or fall--appropriately named since temperatures begin to fall, creating lovely silver mists over the ground in the early morning. This is known as Mist or Fog. Smog to you poor souls who live in the cities.

Being from Maine, and going to Indiana for college, autumn gets put on hold. As I left Maine yesterday, trees were already starting to turn red and orange, while I can assume that (like last year) Indiana will be as green as ever. And yet, while leaving Maine and going someplace else delays my experience of autumn, I don't escape the changing of the seasons. And as I think about that, I'm reminded of life.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
--Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV

Everything must come, and everything must go. This is the way things must be. Sometimes, I really dislike this passage. Because it tells me that one can't have a perfect life. That in order to experience real laughter, one must truly weep. That in order to truly rejoice and dance, one must truly mourn.

This past spring, two young men I knew passed away. One, Josh Larkin, was a year older than me and passed away in his dorm room on my college's campus. He'd be a senior in college this year. The other, Clark Noonan, passed away in a car accident ten days after Josh. Clark would be a junior in college, and was born on the same day, month, and year as me. This I would say, was a sorrowful season. And sometimes, I still get very sad. I'll hear a song and start tearing up. But I know that the only way I can ever truly appreciate life, is to mourn the last of others. I wish we never had to die. I wish we could live on forever.

But at the same time, without the passing of seasons, the world could never change for the better. Without changing seasons in our lives, we can never get stronger. Even when the path is unclear, there must be a better ending, because snow melts to spring.

Hatori: What does snow become when it melts?
Tohru: Um . . . let me think. I know, it becomes spring!
--Fruits Basket

The ice will surely melt, and spring will come. And even if another ice season comes, that too shall melt.