seasons and seasonal
on rhythms and what we can do about them
As my husband just noted, today has been about as consistently rainy as any day we have had in ages. Yes, the newspapers says we are 2+ inches below the normal (hey, Capital Gazette, you mean below average, right?) rainfall amount so we need rain but it has definitely been a while since the clouds were so low, the creek so empty of even our Canadian Geese flotillas, and it felt so dreary.
For many this is an extraordinarily difficult stretch of the year beyond a day of rain. An old friend called late yesterday afternoon begging me to chat for a while. She admitted she was in a deep depression, sadly too common at this point in the year, but she needed to be ok for a family visit that evening. We chatted about this and that for perhaps fifteen minutes, she perked up, said she was ready for her visitor, and thanked me for understanding and helping with her Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD.
I completely understand. She is far from the only person close to me who struggles through the shortened days of sunlight and seemingly unending dark, cold, and too often lonely evenings. For someone with this disorder, it must feel completely like being in prison. The individual is cooped up and desperate for a ray of hope that morning will come much sooner tomorrow. Indeed, for someone who lives alone, this family-oriented season has to be hard. Throwing SAD on top of that has to be crushing, even when one can afford the modern support mechanisms of special lights to brighten the room and cellphones which ought connect them with others.
The problem with depression is that it isolates the very folks who need most to reach out, paralyzing rather than galvanizing them to call someone. Too often they are embarrassed to admit this condition. For those suffering, the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s must be a debilitating stretch rather than one of joy and hope.
Mercifully, we can all help others with small steps. If you know someone is alone or ill or has the dreaded COVID confinement, how about shooting the individual a brief email message with a hello and perhaps an emoji? Or a text would probably be even quicker with an indication you are thinking of that person. Holiday cards are anachronistic today but also a way to say hello, you are not alone.
Sure, some of us are hesitant to call or write because we don’t always know what to say to someone struggling with depression. Yet our actions—your action on any given day—could truly turn around someone’s sense of being forgotten in this whirlwind world. We could prevent even worse things from happening. Just a thought.
On the better side of things, it occurred to me yesterday that my favourite day of the year rapidly approaches in a fortnight. A mere fourteen days. Earlier in life, someone belittled me regularly about my least favourite day of the year being the summer solstice as the days start shortening, robbing me of the long, leisurely shadows of warm summer evenings. However, by extension, I have for all my adult life been giddy at the prospect of the winter solstice because we have indeed reached the shortest period of sunlight and we can bring on those longer beautiful days. The fact that this coincides with the holidays is nice but completely secondary to me. I am thrilled that the days won’t feel they begin at 7 am for photography, the close by 4.30 in the afternoon. And we reach that point week after next!!
Finally, most of us have read Ecclesiastes 3:1 which includes ‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven’. I must confess I am glad the two buds from tulip bulbs I found in pots on the balcony today, amidst the rainy muck apparently did not read Ecclesiastes. These wee buds will rue the cold likely to penalise them for their early appearance but they are a reminder that the time for spring is merely six months away….FIN
