The changing of the seasons reminds us that we too are always changing, as we move from birth to death. There are also continual mini seasons in our lives, as we have periods of growth and rest, of planting and bearing fruit. And the same dynamic is even seen in each moment, and is at the heart of being aware:
The present moment hovers between past and future, just as life hovers between birth and death. We respond to both in similar ways. Just as we flee from the awesome encounter with birth and death to the safety of a manageable world, so we flee from the pulse of the present to a fantasy world…..Evasion of the unadorned immediacy of life is as deep-seated as it is relentless. Even with the ardent desire to be alert and aware in the present moment, the mind flings us into tawdry and tiresome elaborations of the past and future. The craving to be otherwise, to be elsewhere, permeates the body, feelings, perceptions, will – consciousness itself. It is like the background radiation from the big bang of birth, the aftershock of having erupted into existence.
Stephen Bachelor, Buddhism without Beliefs
