Seasons of nature and seasons of life

Spring is the queen of the seasons. It is the youth of the year and ever brimful of hopes is youth. The snow begins to melt, rivers begin to flow, birds begin to fly and the plants begin to grow. Spring revives new life and new spirit all around. Fresh and sweet, bright and blooming, delightful and lovely, charming and smiling is the beautiful spring. With spring with us, we are lively and cheerful, hopeful and happy.

Nature's heart is warmed and it throbs with new life. Wilderness blossoms into a garden. The floods of sunshine bathe the blossoms and the trees bend under the burden of their fruits. Freshness breathes in fields and forests. The earth is clothed with the green garment. Fields are waving with golden harvest. The verdant pastures and the luxuriance of vegetation cover the earth. Nature paints in exquisite colors and manifold hues scenes of evanescent beauty. The fragrance of flowers scent the air. The perfumed wind caresses the faces of all.

The wind sings lullabies and rocks birds nestling in trees to sleep. The winged songsters of brilliant plumage twitter in the trees and sing their delightful melodies among luxuriant thickets. The nightingale keeps her vigil over the budding rose at night and the rose sleeps its infant sleep. The sweet fragrance of the rose wooes the nightingale into love. Laden with honey they gather among the wild flowers, the busy bees wing their way to their hives. On the golden branch of the pomegranate tree sits the butterfly with superbly woven and delicately painted wings. Pleasing is the soft sound of the rustle of a squirrel yonder in the bushes and shrubs.

With the azure dome above my head, with the green lawn beneath my feet, let me ramble and run, jump and romp, laugh and sing, in this wide world of joy and cheer, mirth and merriment. Nature in spring is my companion and trees and birds and animals are my friends. Let me live close to nature under the turquoise sky and speak with animals and sing with birds. When all nature sings to thee and flowers and trees and streams and rivers all their melodies do sing. Lord, let me not lag behind. Rouse me to play my noble part worthy of my humanity. Let me be alive to the multifarious charms of nature, when she is at her best in the spring. Let me drink at the fountain of sweetness and loveliness of nature, that nature may beguile my care and chase away my anxieties and enliven and gladden my heart.

Wearing the golden garment planned and prepared by the Spring, comes the leafy Summer. The orchards and fields and forests are in full bloom. The clouds float in the sweet azure of the vaulted sky. The earth and grass and trees make the air all perfume. The Summer sun blazes down upon the earth with burning heat and the towns and the villages swelter in heat. Parched lands thirst for water. Heavy clouds cap the mountain crests. The crashing thunders of Apaosha are heard and the blinding lightning of Spenzagra illuminates the dark forests. The clouds of Tishtrya burst and the rain drops fall. The rain falls in a thin drizzle and the rain falls in torrents. Rain soaks our clothes and drenches the earth. The earth bears fruit and corn. The vegetable and flower seeds bud and blossom in the sunshine. Nature displays her boundless benevolence towards animals and men and they thrive on the plenty that the mother earth yields.

Then sets in the leafless Autumn. The autumnal fog hangs thickly over the landscape. The killing frost wind withers and kills the buds of flowers and plants and fruit trees. Frosty winds whistle through leafless boughs and their melancholy meanings are heard all around. Feebleness of age now creeps over the year and on the eve of its life, in halting and faltering steps, does it move onward on its downward seasonal journey.

From his dreary abode in the northern regions, now comes Winter. A heavy mist hangs over the plains. Winter lays his icy hand on earth. Snow falls on the crests of the mountains. The branches of trees are clothed in glittering snow-frozen crystals. Blinding blizzards and heavy snowstorms chill the animal world to the bone and the teeth do chatter and the bodies do shiver with unbearable cold. Vegetation is frozen to death in the snow. With faded light and departed glory, aged and crippled, breathless and lifeless, falls old year in the darkness of the wintry night and dies.

The year dies, but to be reborn year after year. I die but once and know not rebirth. The pleasures on which I set my heart in the Spring of my life flee from me. The glamour of gaiety departs never to return. Save me, thou Savior, my God, from early sinking into the feebleness of old age. Let not my life lose its savor for me, when in the Winter of my life, I feel my strength diminishing. Let not my temper be ruffled. Youth heals the wounds of the heart. Help me long to retain the youthful vigor of my mind, when my body grows old. Let not the ardor of my youthful soul be quenched, when the Autumn and Winter of my life overtake me.

Seasons come and seasons go. From Spring to Summer and Summer to Autumn and Autumn to Winter, the seasons march. As it is with nature, so it is with human life.

In the Autumn and Winter of my life, I reap what I have sown in the Spring and Summer of my life. Help me to live my youthful seasons well, that I may live in peace in the closing seasons of my life, Ahura Mazda.

This page was last updated on Tuesday, August 01, 2000.