#1324 - eternal spring
As I wrote here, my intention for 2023 is to "harvest".
Last Saturday, I explored what this word means to me with my dear friend Luca. We went out for a walk in the woods. It was a warm winter morning, the clouds very low on the valley, so we went up on a hill looking for a clear sky outside and some clarity inside.
And it worked.
But I had no doubts; it always works.
Being in nature, walking and sharing time with a good friend is a recipe for great conversations. And so it was.
While I was sharing with Luca my idea of harvesting and what makes it so important to me, I was reminded of this article by Carlos Saavedra I read last autumn.
It's a great essay about the importance of seasonality: the fact that everything in nature has a cyclical pattern. And, because we are nature, so do we. Individually and collectively.
People, organizations, movements, and communities of all sizes go through seasons. They may not have the same length or regularity as a year's seasons, but we go through them.
It's a fascinating topic, and I will never be able to squeeze it in here, so I suggest you read the article by Carlos Saavedra.
What hit me during the walk was the concept of "eternal summer" that the author explains in the article. The idea that our society mainly focuses on productivity, efficiency and consumption is pushing people to live in a constant state of giving it all and pushing hard. As the article states, "summer is externally focused and is primarily about giving as much as we can to fulfill our different missions. It is a time of high energy, characterized by movement and intensity."
All of this to say that, on that winter morning, walking in the woods and talking with Luca, I realized that I may have been experiencing a sort of "eternal spring syndrome" for a while now.
"Spring is about opening up, taking on new personal responsibilities and experimenting. In many ways, spring is about the start of a new cycle, the birth that comes out from the depths and darkness of winter. It is a time of excitement and openness, and recommitting to the task at hand."
I am a bit addicted to the excitement of new beginnings, openings, ideas, and possibilities. However, without going into harvest, sooner or later, energy drops and the fatigue of not getting to the crop and seeing results creeps in.
So, it's time to harvest.