..appreciating changing seasons..

Day 6

My studies moved me to Phoenix, Arizona in 2010, but a new job landed me in Pennsylvania during the winter of 2013. I transitioned from living in a desert to enjoying a state with abundant greenery. It was not until I enjoyed spring in Pennsylvania that I realized how monochromatic Arizona is.

Living in Pennsylvania was symbolic for me in many ways. But one of the allegories that resonates most within me was witnessing the rebirth that occurs during the spring. After enduring life in a desert, it was sweet to rediscover the spring. I admit that the winter in Pennsylvania was a blur to me, but the springtime I lived there is permanently tattooed in my memory.

I remember talking to my sister while driving around one April day. Every time I passed by a tree painted with flowers I interrupted her. I exclaimed, "Wow! How nice! Such pretty flowers! The colors are amazing!"

Her response to my outbursts was: "Do not be stupid! That's normal! This is what always happens every spring! Plants bloom!"

Honestly, our conversation seemed to repeat itself like a broken record. For several days we repeated a similar dialogue. While I admired the plants and colors, she tried to make me understand the normality of the season.

Until one day much to my surprise, she finally exclaimed: "Aaaah, I forgot that you lived in the desert! And in Phoenix there’s no flowers and everything looks brown!"

That seems such an insignificant everyday conversation if it were not for the fact that it taught me a great lesson. Let me explain.

For someone accustomed to living in a desert painted brown hues such as Phoenix, my eyes became a stranger to a landscape enriched with so much vegetation. So it was remarkable to be able to appreciate the nuances of nature in the midst of such greenery. It was hard to grasp what I was seeing.

I realized that I would not have appreciated a spring until after I endured living in the desert and withstanding a winter. Then I learned that the details of a season could be fully appreciated only when we stop to take inventory of change itself.

So this is the lesson: We appreciate the good seasons in life after we endure the bitter seasons and learn from them.

Furthermore, I will add that..

We appreciate family when we find ourselves apart from them.

We appreciate home once we become a stranger somewhere.

We appreciate relationships after we experience loneliness.

We appreciate work once unemployment surprises us.

We appreciate opportunities once we knock closed doors.

We appreciate purpose in life after we feel we have lived aimlessly.