Savour All Seasons!

By Niggy Squirry

It was just the other day. It had been raining at night, and I heard loud thunder. It suddenly reminded me of God’s power. Who else could create such an awesome sound apart from God?, I wondered. This thought rejuvenated me. It gave me peace. Not a soul on this earth is as powerful as Almighty God, Who creates thunder, lightning and rain, summer, winter, spring and autumn, along with everything else in this humungous universe!

                                                                   *

One of the few gems that I gained from my parents while growing up was the fact that I never heard them complain about or criticize the seasons, which is something that many people just love to do. Both my parents had a frail body-structure, and as they grew in years, during winter, their aches and pains would be at their peak. But they managed these with considerable endurance, and never did I hear them curse the winter cold.

Years ago, my father had fallen sick and landed in hospital from his workplace directly. It was monsoon time, and that evening, it rained so heavily that the roads were flooded. Taxis or autos were not available, and so, how was I to reach the hospital from my workplace? I panicked, but a kind colleague courageously drove me on his bike to the hospital. Even today I remember this and feel grateful that God made a path through the flooded roads. This taught me to accept the rains as they come and go.

                                                                   *

Different people react and respond to seasons differently, depending not just on their body structure but also on their mindset. If you accept the seasons as they are, it may be far easier to go through them than if you habitually complain about it being supposedly fearfully hot or icily cold or just too wet.

Over the years, personal experience has taught me that accepting seasons as they are brings in peace. As beings with a mind that are contained in a physical body, we do get affected by the seasons. But complaining about the weather is not going to solve the issue. Never has cursing the weather caused the weather to change even a bit. The only thing that happens is that the more one bemoans what one thinks is ‘awful weather’, the more miserable one will oneself feel.

                                                                   *

With summer having just ended in the city where I currently live, the days are now sometimes cloudy, and it rains now and then. Some people here now miss the same sunshine they used to complain about till just a few weeks ago, making themselves as miserable about the current cold and wet weather as they were a short while ago when they complained that it was just too hot and dry for them. How much misery they could have spared themselves if only they could learn to simply accept, if not to actively enjoy, each season just as it is, instead of hoping it would have been different!

                                                                   *

The external comfort devices that we use to face the challenges of different weather conditions—be they air-conditioners, fans and coolers in summer, umbrellas and raincoats during the rains, and sweaters and shawls in winter—may all be helpful. All these accessories may give us external comfort till each season lasts. But in addition to this, acceptance in our mind of each season, and of the weather on each day in each season, is also helpful. Recognizing that each season comes from the same Divine Source that arranged for us to be here, on Planet Earth, and so must in its own way be a Divine blessing, can give us inner strength to relate with every season and weather condition, and all the things it brings with it, in the best possible manner.

                                                                   *

Reminding ourselves that all seasons come as a Divine blessing can greatly help us accept them gracefully and save ourselves from getting miserable about forms of weather that we may find inconvenient by bemoaning them. Surely, there will be ups and downs during the seasons, but if we take the seasons to be from the Divine Source controlling the universe, we may be able to experience them without complaint.