72 seasons
Japan has 72 microseasons, dividing the year into five day segments. With names that are aligned with the changing natural world, it is a poetic observation of the impermenance and cyclical nature of life.
Japan adapted a calendar from China in the late 17th century that segments the year into 72 microseasons. I know this because of a Headspace video that highlights this history. The concept is interesting to me as the season here in western Massachusetts has started to turn and time becomes more contracted with the passing years. So many thoughts arise.
I turned 48 last week. Death is closer than it was last year. The Stoics remind us to keep our death, our limited time on this earth, at the forefront of our minds. It is not something to fear. My available time to do things (have experiences, fall in love again, learn to play the drums, walk with Trixie) is less than what it was. How to expand this limited life left in me?
Time feels longer when there are many new, varied experiences. When we look back on our lives, the sameness of our days coalesce into a time blob, this sort of block of monotony. When recollecting my own past, the years after my divorce, living in a one-room cabin a stone’s throw from Walden Pond, they are just one…