Secret to happiness is looking forward to the next season
JAAK PANKSEPP, the neuroscientist, argued there are seven core emotions in the brain: rage, fear, lust, panicgrief, maternal care, play and seeking. These are so fundamental, he argues, that they encompass all mammals.
But it is “seeking” which is deemed the key to human satisfaction. Looking forward is what keeps us happy.
I find this the case with the passing of the seasons. It is the preparation for and anticipation of what lies ahead that makes weather watching our national past-time. As summer drags we dream of the misty, melancholy of autumn, and when the fallen leaves turn to mulch we long for crisp, winter frosts. And right now, I’m sure we all agree, spring cannot come soon enough.
I’ve noticed this week that first sweet smell as the land begins to thaw. Across the country in the coming days there will be plenty of cloud and outbreaks of rain in the North West in particular, but things are warming up. Listen to the rising birdsong and watch the buds beginning to burst, spring is around the corner.
Anticipation of the seasons is key to survival in nature. It is why the distorted patterns of climate change wreak such havoc among wildlife. Long before spring has officially arrived birds must begin to pair off, locate the optimum sites to rear their young and begin to feather their nests.
Some larger birds may even already be at it. Ravens, for example, will already have been constructing their sprawling nests over recent weeks and lining them with moss and sheep’s wool ahead of egg-laying next month.
A favourite end-of-season poem of mine is Thaw by Edward Thomas, which captures the moment when winter starts to release its grip. He imagines a group of rooks high up in the trees, surveying the melting snow:
‘And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flowers of grass/ What we below could not see, Winter pass.’