The Seasons

"Hope and fear cannot alter the seasons."

-- Chogyam Trungpa

Winter is coming on. Today the forecast is for a light snow/sleet mix, with blustery winds and temperatures in the thirties. Yuck! I don't like it. Nature doesn't care.

Weather just is. Seasons just are. They come and go. The cycle is outside of my control or influence. My feelings about the seasons mean as much to nature as do those dry leaves that are swirling aimlessly in the wind.

When we look at what is, and let go of our emotional response to what is, everything is just fine. Not fine in the sense that all our hopes are realized and all our fears avoided. Fine in the sense that we are no longer in a struggle with reality. Because, you know, in a battle between you and reality, reality wins every damn time!

Hope and fear are both unnecessary, emotional side trips off Reality Road. Both cloud the mind. Both take us into fantasy and away from what is. Hope may feel a little better than fear when it is running through your body, but really it's just the flip side of fear, fear in drag.

There is a prevalent notion in our culture that you must have hope in order to survive the ups and downs of life. Balderdash! And by balderdash I mean bullshit! You don't need hope, you need a clear, unsentimental view of reality. Only with open-eyed, real time information can you receive the insight necessary to make effective and appropriate decisions.

And don't even get me started on fear, the primary Republican political strategy, and one of Madison Avenue's favorite techniques to motivate consumers to partake in unwarranted spending and unnecessary consumption. Fear produces even more bad decisions and dysfunctional behaviors than hoping, wishing and fantasizing combined!

So, it's the dregs of autumn. Or the dog days of summer. Or the bone-chilling cold of winter. Or the soggy, suicidal grey skies of spring. No matter. Hope and fear are both impotent to alter the flight of one snow flake, to bend the path of one sunbeam. It's up to us to harmonize with nature, not the other way around.

When you choose the path of harmony, though, the payoff is tremendous. You can ride the energy of reality, just like body surfing a big Hawaiian wave. But it only works if you let go. Let go of both hope and fear and flow with it. When you do, I can assure you of one thing -- you're in for one hell of a ride!