The season of November

Do you ever feel that seasons were carved out of the flow of time by people living entirely different lives than yours? They were, of course, unless you are currently engaged in archaic forms of agriculture and living in the Mediterranean. Either we have too many seasons or too few.

Canadians on the whole are less interested in the cycles of agriculture than the cycles of sunshine: we have light months, dark months and bright months. The light months last from May to October. The dark months are November, December, March and usually April. The bright months are not months at all: they are just the few days between November and April when the sun shines down on bright, white snow. They are the days when we like winter.

So, as you will have noticed, in Canada we really have two seasons: light and dark. On light days, we feel better. We smile more. We believe the world to be a mostly friendly place. On dark days, gloom creeps into every corner of our thoughts. We are skeptical. We are cranky. We are stressed.

Fortunately, even in the dark, light days break in and break up the gloom. The sun shines and we shine back. Warm sun makes us sleepy: the sun in the cold wakes us all the way up.

The sun is shining this morning. Wake all the way up.

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