[Seasons: Winter III]
Everything dies in the winter. But it’s not meaningless death. It’s not senseless suffering.
Winter die-off is nature’s way of tending to itself. The fallen leaves nourish the tree, the grass gives back to the pasture, and the garden takes a deep breath.
It’s still true: everything dies. Every year winter teaches me this harsh lesson. Every year I’m reminded that death is never easy and yet it’s not always bad.
A modern day virtue is the prolonging of life, often well beyond what is sensible and compassionate. Winter loosens our grip on life. Death comes. It must. And there are no amount of times it comes—year after year after year—that it finally loses its sting.
Winter is when we hold life loosely, allow ourselves to grieve, and not judge endings as ultimately bad.
