Winter is my least favorite season, and that feeling has only increased as the years go by. Endless grey sky, cold rain, and life just seems to retreat during this time of the year. It's harder to stay motivated on daily tasks, yet the obligations remain. Sickness runs rampant among people, yet we still have to press on. Something in our biology tells us to hunker down, bulk up on fattening foods, and stay in, yet nothing really stops or changes, just our attitude as we do them.

It's the season that brings us closest to death. That patient spirit that never leaves us and sooner or later, takes us in it's arms and carries us to that next plain, whatever and wherever, and whenever that may be.

At times it's hard to imagine that from this cold, still, and seemingly lifeless state there is the potential for abundant and virtually unlimited growth of life. I guess that is the great lesson to learn from this season, how necessary death is to life. To have one, you need the other, and so on, forever. Despite me not liking it so much, I respect it's relentless presence. As the season of endurance, I can learn from it, despite wanting to spend more time in bed when it is actually here.