21 Comments

This is a fantastic read and the first of your articles that I have found. Bravo!

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Thanks very much, Cecilia! So good to have you on board. :)

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This is a welcome relief from my political Substack adventures! Thank you for sharing.

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My pleasure. Thanks for reading!

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Good morning Jonathan! How lovely to see your post at the top of my Notes feed. 44 days until spring! I'm a new reader here and a lover of Mother Earth and her rhythms. I’ll happily take the dry stuff in between the poetic.

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Hi Maureen! Fantastic to have you on board. Thanks for joining. :)

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This entry feels like a slow read to take in the seasonal shift while also conveying the rush of survival.

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Well put! Thanks Stacy!

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I have only lived really lived on the American East Coast. I haven’t thought much about how seasons have different rhythms in different places and how the ecosystems adapt. I loved this. Thank you. Hope the waves were good to you.

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Thanks so much, Michelle! Glad you enjoyed it. Felt a bit vulnerable putting something out there like this. But it was fun to write!

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I love how this post captures so well the cyclic nature of our lives—human and animal and plant. The mayflies and “their magnificent gallery forests”, the shredders and the filter feeders and the fish and the “massive influx of organic matter” and the patience.

To your final question, though I’m new to your work and haven’t read your norm, I’d say yes for sure to more of this. :)

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Thanks Holly! Glad you think so :)

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The Byrds song comes from the original text in the Bible - it's beautiful:

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die,

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;...

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance;"

See the full text in Ecclesiastes 3.

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Thanks Louise. Yes, I actually quoted Ecclesiastes 3 in a paper of mine about seasonality back in 2017. :)

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I'm an atheist and have no love for Christianity, but it seems a gross error to use the song as an anchor point instead of its inspiration, Ecclesiastes 3. The passage is literarily valuable, the song was a trite assemblage by children expressing profound words from profane mouths.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%203&version=NIV

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Sorry -- fair point.

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This was beautiful <3

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Thanks so much, Erin!

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I loved this article Jono and I remember singing that Byrds 1965 hit at school (giving my age away here), but it did make me think about the seasons. It feels like they are changing with summer starting later, autumn later etc. Also your article made me think how clever nature actually is, going about it's business no matter what. More of this kind of writing every now and again thanks!

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Amazing how clever nature is eh!

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You naive left wing beta 🤣

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