Nature has a way of telling us just how things are going to be. This winter in Jackson was a record snowfall, making this summer a record snow melt. All the rivers are raging, threatening to spill over onto banks and boundaries that otherwise thought they had no cares in this world. And up in the highest sacred crevasses of the mountains, so much snow is still at rule. And I learned that absolutely on my hike to Amphitheater Lake this past weekend. At first I was so happy to see the snow, I had been treading up the mountain for hours and was reaching that point where you are hot and there’s nothing else to think about because you are hot. But the last mile or so, the snow completely swallowed the trail, as if a trail had never been there in the first place. The first set of footprints I followed in the wrong direction just baffled me. The hundredth set of footprints, leading me to a field of endless white, scared the shit out of me. Was I actually LOST? Had I literally overstepped my bounds with nature, searched for something I wasn’t on that day meant to find? Eventually I did make my way to one of the two lakes I’d been searching for. And I sat there with perhaps greater respect than ever before of how nature plays by its own rules, determines its own seasons. There’s a calm acceptance in things we humans have no control over.

In contrast then are the seasons we go through in our lives– not so easily determined, predicted, felt. I’ve been thinking about how the past 8ish years of my life were a season where I devoted myself to my career. Sure other interests flourished in this time too, but as a whole it was a period where I was living and giving a lot of what I had to give to becoming traditionally successful. And I did it and I am proud of having done it.

But now I’m in Wyoming and its a different season. I still want to be successful but I think my definition of that is now wildly up for interpretation. A successful day might be Saturday, when I completed a hike even if it kicked my ass. Or a day when I make a new friend. Or a day when I’m in a new place and I feel right being there.

Seasons come and seasons go, and we should let them. No point in me waking up every morning undercutting myself and my creativity just because its now living in a different way. I can always expect, and look forward to, a season that will be career dominant again. But right now, I’m knee deep in snow and possibilities, and it’s a time to appreciate that.

Moment of Gratitude: Seasons come in nature as in ourselves, to bring different aspects to the surface, to teach us, to inspire us, to keep life comfortably out of our hands.