Spring, summer, autumn, winter are classed as the four seasons, with each having its own different characteristic. Spring is fresh, balmy and mild, when everything is new, brimming with hope and life, looking to a bright future of what’s to come.
Then comes summer, with its searing heat, dry, sweating, hot, muggy, humid and a burning that saps the strength.
This is followed by autumn, when the temperature drops, the air begins to get cool and the leaves start to change from green to brown before they fall to the ground. Animals begin to prepare for what’s to come…winter.
Yes, winter is coming, with the dreaded cold, snow and ice, combined with a frigid wind that makes it even colder, the wind chill factor. it’s not a time to be outdoors.
Just like the seasons, people also go through seasonal changes, moreso people who are involved in relationships. What we experience, are the seasonal changes that are thrust upon us whenever we embark on the perilous journey of a relationship.
When the relationship is new, just like spring, everything is fresh and brimming with hope. Birds are singing, the man is full of lyrics and promises and is on his best behavior as he delivers hopes and dreams of wondrous things to come.
The woman is receptive, her eyes sparkle like the stars, gleaming with anticipation, her lips are inviting, her body pulsating with ecstasy and desire. Spring is here and it’s the season of hope and anticipation.
“Come woo me, woo me, for I am in holiday humour, and like enough to consent.” Shakespeare.
Spring is ephemeral, short lived, and that freshness gives way to summer, the blistering heat of summer. But summer is not all bad.
‘Summertime, and the living is easy
Fish are jumping and the cotton is high,
Oh your daddy’s rich, and your ma is good looking,
So hush little baby, don’t you cry..
Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin
Summer can be beautiful , and so can be relationships that have come this far, for even though the mild spring has given way to heat, passions will also rise. So much so that many weddings take place in summer. But winter is coming.
Before that though, cometh the autumn of the relationship, where ardor begins to cool, The doors begin to close as the frost emerges.
It’s a time of cooling down, a time when feelings slowly fade and temperatures range from lukewarm to tepid.
It’s the autumn of life, and the couple is just drifting along. They may drift from season to season without even realizing it. The changes may creep up so imperceptiveiy that they barely notice it, hardly see it coming or sense the change, until one day they ask, ‘When did we get here?”
Winter is here, the dreaded bitter cold and frost that is bone numbing and teeth chattering. Men feel it, women endure it, for this cold can be disastrous. “This is the winter of my discontent.”
“My woman just gone cold on me for years now,.”
“He’s become so cold, indifferent, uncaring, hardly says a word to me anymore.“ Winter is here.
Many couples are in the winter of their relationship. For some it’s a mild winter, endurable, while for others it’s a blizzard, a blustery biting cold. Some get used to it, the arctic wind, the glacial movement of their hopes and dreams. You may see them out in public, together, yet so far apart, out at dinner but never touching or speaking to each other, but glued to their phones. It is the winter of their discontent.
Winter must be the worst season in the cycle of relationships, for the chill is pervasive, as they both settle into the frost.
Every relationship has its four seasons, the secret is to try to hold on to spring, summer and autumn as long as you can.
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