Here in Montana winter does not turn to spring. There is a season in between, the Unlocking*, as Kurt Vonnegut named it. In April winter holds a tight grip as the warmer westerly air moves through and the sun reaches higher in the sky. It can reach 80’ one day and turn to snow the next. You can’t count on gardening until Memorial Day. In the North you learn to mitigate your need for warm days, for green grass and wildflowers with more time reading seed catalogs, finding good food to eat and taking long walks. A nice meditation and movement practice is also helpful. It’s challenging to live in the North but giving way to a couple extra seasons lowers our expectations to more realistic levels and softens the transition times between. Longer slower exhales and a slight smile at the irony of it all, this is the feel of the unlocking.

Vonnegut describes the 6 seasons, “One sort of optional thing you might do is to realize there are six seasons instead of four. The poetry of four seasons is all wrong for this part of the planet, and this may explain why we are so depressed so much of the time. I mean, Spring doesn’t feel like Spring a lot of the time, and November is all wrong for Fall and so on. Here is the truth about the seasons: Spring is May and June! What could be springier than May and June? Summer is July and August. Really hot, right? Autumn is September and October. See the pumpkins? Smell those burning leaves. Next comes the season called “Locking.” That is when Nature shuts everything down. November and December aren’t Winter. They’re Locking. Next comes Winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold! What comes next? Not Spring. Unlocking comes next. What else could April be?”