Desperately Trying to Hold Back Winter

In the UK, this week, an interesting thing happened.

After what feels like weeks (but is probably only about 10 days) of constant - often torrential - rain, the sun came out.

And it wasn’t the same as the last sun we saw: the cold, crisp Winter sun.

It was Spring.

Snowdrops appeared.

Smiles appeared.

On the day the sun came out, I checked my inbox for the first time after 10 days off.

There were shoots there.

There were new flowers open.

The birds in my inbox were singing in a different way.

And, by God, it felt good to feel the Spring.

The seasonal nature of life is almost impossible to ignore.

And yet we ignore it.

We prefer to believe that we are machines - but you are not a machine.

You are a human, an animal, made of the same stuff as all the other living things on this planet. With far more in common with any of them than with a machine (no matter how convincing that machine may be).

But unlike every other living thing, we have the capacity to believe the stories we tell ourselves. And we tell ourselves the story that we can live out of alignment with the cycles of the planet.

The cycles of ourselves.

The cycles of our lives.

We numb them with drugs.

We numb them with entertainment.

We numb them with social media.

We numb them with work.

We tell ourselves the collective story that if we just keep pushing, we’ll get somewhere.

But the lies never work. Not in the long term.

They come back to haunt us, showing us - ever so slowly, ever so tantalisingly - the foolishness we are engaged in.

The heroic foolishness.

We might have no better way to cope with the bleakness but to use the 21st century’s incredible avoidance tools.

Or we we might be pulled by a cause and a calling to foolishly ignore what we know, deep down.

A man alone, struggling, pulling and pushing at life.

Desperately trying to hold things together.

Desperately trying to hold back winter.

For the sake of the people he loves.

But winter is always coming.

And sometimes, winter is here.

‘That holding back winter, thing - how’s that working out for you, brother?’ said my coach.

‘Oh, it’s great, man,’ I said, tears fresh on my cheeks.

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PS My new book, The Power to Choose: Finding Calm and Connection in a Complex World, is out now! Get your copy here: https://geni.us/powertochoose

This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.