Embracing Seasonality

Having been on the IHC team for several years, not meeting all of my goals and expectations, but noticing patterns, it is clear that I need to embrace seasonality.

There is wisdom in working with it rather than fighting against it. Like swimming across a river with a strong current, you don’t fight the current to swim straight across but rather let the current carry you such that you swim across at an angle. You still arrive on the other side, not in the precise spot you may have wanted, but you are much less tired.

As humans, we are hardwired for seasonality. We have evolved on this earth with it, over countless generations. Our body’s have circadian rhythms, such as sleep and wake cycles. We also have monthly rhythms. Breath rate and pulse are more rhythms. There is spring, summer, autumn, and winter. We accept these seasons by planting and growing in the spring and summer instead of the winter. No one accuses the farmer of slacking off because they didn’t continue planting and harvesting in the winter. We have seasons of human life too: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and elders. One often cannot do in one season of life what we once did in the others. We can adapt to the season we are in, to reach our goals, rather than fighting the aforementioned current.

Every year my numbers and blogs drop off during the growing season. This year, in recognition of such seasonality (though I didn’t have a term for it yet), I specifically stated that the work on the Great Coat project would be more of a winter task. Unfortunately, something came up and so, while now would have been when I was working on it, I have to adapt and wait a little longer, perhaps even into the next IHC year. But I’ve learned that winter is when I have time to sew. I’ll still get across that river but just a little further downstream.

Choosing to do something according to these rhythms doesn’t mean that you're doing everything at the last minute. You are working with the natural rhythms of life. How I adapt to these rhythms in order to successfully reach my goals is something I’m still figuring out.