Celebrating All Seasons – Year ‘Round

Every season brings with it changes—some good, some bad, some challenging to one’s sanity. Celebrating the Seasons is a lot like the change of seasons. Each of the stories has at least some of what you hope for in a specific season, like Joe Scavetti’s Tomorrow in the spring season, for example. On a grey day, the young male protagonist, feeling that, “All of his hopes, dreams and comforts . . . were flooding down the storm drains of Pensacola,” learns a life’s lesson in an unusual way.

In An Unexpected Summer Breeze, Darlinda Hagens leads us through mystery, murder and long-awaited love. What could be better in a summer of showers and sizzling heat? And speaking of sizzling heat, we can thank the autumn season and Carla Guthrie’s Autumn Walk story to cool down that heat and give us a renewed appreciation for how this change of season begins one of rest, something we all need but fight against. As Carla puts it, “Human nature perhaps abhors idleness.” Yet, idleness helps to prepare us for “The Gifts of Winter,” and Changing Roles by E.H. McEachern, where taking time to reminisce and learn about the past grants the opportunity for you, too, to feel a sense of piece envelop you “like a warm well-worn and loved blanket.”

Although you can read each poem and story from start to finish in the book, I find that skipping ahead and going back again, is more than satisfying; it’s also effective at helping me prepare for the day ahead. Sometimes, I even reread my own story, Waterfalls, where a lonely young woman and an enterprising neighbor conspire to bring love (and more) to the protagonist’s life. So, read a poem or a short story whenever time permits, and then you can enjoy the changing of the seasons at any time of the year.