This is the season of in between. What does that mean?

Winter has not departed from Brant Lake. Piles of hardened snow line the roads and pop up like miniature glaciers on the lawn. In fact, some lawns are still covered with snow, capped with a layer of ice. The days might hover near 70° but at night the temperature drops into the 20s. Our horses still wear a coat of fur and have not been ridden for months. Ice fisherman have not yet relinquished their spots on the lake and the fishing holes that have been dug reveal one foot of ice.

It is still partial winter.

But soon spring and summer will visit the Adirondacks. The snowmobiles have already been stored in the garage for another year. Puddles from melting snow invade the highway and the stream across from our house flows quickly, a conduit for the melt off on the hills.

Many lawns are brown and, although still barren, in several places the green of new growth is visible. Although our apple trees are still behind a fence, to deter deer, the trees are beginning to show swollen buds, ready to burst. Forsythia and pussy willow cry out: “Soon winter will be over! Be patient! The days are longer. Be patient!”

Spring and summer will come. This is the time between the seasons.

Perhaps the symbol of this time of the year is the crocus about to paint the landscape with beautiful colors. The crocus opens during the day then closes at night. Spring is about to open yet still reluctant. The crocus still seeks refuge at night. It is too cold to be open to the world around. The crocus. Winter and spring encapsulated in a single flower. This is a flower that is open to the future and yet reluctant to remain open–shriveling into itself as night falls.

So it is for most of us. We vacillate between winter and spring. At one time we approach the world and our lives with pessimism, downhearted, at another time we are optimistic and our world seems more radiant. We move from sadness to happiness, from a downswing to an upswing.

Thus our lives move with our internal seasons.

Sheltering