There is a season for everything.
The first rain of this season in this part of the world fell on 20th January, 2019.
Regardless of the part of the world you may live, there are seasons – rain, dry and harmattan. In other regions, winter, spring, summer and autumn. There are in-between – a medley of seasons, a hue in different lands. In a carefree way we all say: “This is how they come every season – the usual”. This natural regularity tends to make us take seasons for granted. But this sometimes change.
Our attention could be disturbed when there is upsurge. The rains may come heavier, with violent winds and flood washing off many places. The cold weather could bite harder. Heat waves could move to unsettling levels. At this point, our awareness is challenged. Unnervingly, we come to tag such season with unkind sobriquets. Yes, the way we feel about the season, perhaps, a new normal.
A news report could tilt the description of lone weather incident in a whole season. It could be made to assume a whole picture. A summation of different things but lifted like a special number to equal everything. We then become emotional and noisy. It quickly gears into judgement. A friend could become a foe!
On the other hand, we may do so contemplatively. We may compare the rains of the previous few years without any weather observatory device. This excites our mind as it plays up and down in a clever way to convince us. It gets into the art proper. Then, the thought about seasons intensifies like an historian’s mind establishing a chronology. It outlines past occurrences, of the peaks and lows of the rains, snow fall, cold or heat. Instantly, odds are assigned to the season, and it tags.
While these depictions are common and variegated, a perceptive observer is keen like a traditional farmer. He is inclined and adept to consistently note isolated signs over time that indicate a shift. These may not exactly be dramatic but a consistency of identifiable indices, no matter how insignificant can enable a tutored mind towards greater expectation.
For many locals a year of intense harmattan is always an indicator of “normal rain season”. A keen observer will after many years look out for such indicators.
Seasons trivial could rally into something and create some expectation. It is the same reason older people would say they are not surprised by an event. Indeed, it is like the proverbial old man sitting down but sees farther than the young man on top of a tree.
A season indicator are largely a harbinger to its eventual outcome; notwithstanding “depletion of the ozone layers”.
Alterations could occur, but our ability to observe indicators in a season dispose us to many wins. Don’t let seasons roll by just as a natural pass. Identify also the seeming trivial that could make the difference. You are welcome to a new season.
