The transition from winter to spring has long been a favourite of Katherine's. To her, it is a representation that nothing ever ends, and even when it does there is always a new beginning. One of the things she loves the most about the change of the seasons is seeing the people around her transition. It's funny -to her, how much you can tell about a person by the way they appreciate the change of the seasons.
As she sits on the bench in the park waiting for Lydia she sees two sets of people, one set younger and the other older. The younger set is embracing the warmth of the upcoming spring and the older set is holding on to the last few beats of the cold heart of the winter. This is the perfect example to support her theory. Katherine finds that younger people are more willing to let go of things and "go with the flow" while older persons tend to hold on dearly to the things of the past and even the things that are happening currently. She believes that this is so because older people are more sentimental while younger people are more unsentimental. That doesn't go to say that she believes that younger people are incapable of being sentimental and older people don't know how to be unsentimental it is just that -based on her observations, older people tend to be more sentimental than younger people.
Though from time to time she finds that younger people these days feed more into nostalgia than older people can ever dream. Take her friend Lydia for example, Katherine believes that nostalgia runs everywhere that blood is to be in her body.
The days are longest in the winter, and this is the last day the winter has to roam the earth until it has to hand the reigns over to the spring so this is easily the longest day the year has ever seen. The wind is howling, crying, pleading with the sun to let him have this day to himself. But the sun isn't having it, he's been hiding, bargaining with the rain and wind for a day in peace for three consecutive months but he's never gotten it so he feels like his time has come. He feels like his season has begun and the winter needs to let go so that the spring can have her day in the sun.
But letting go is never easy; this Katherine can tell the sun. Because if letting go was easy she wouldn't have been here waiting on her friend to sing her an old tired song. But that's the thing about stories, they should never be told from one point of view, not even if it is a story of a single person. The sun thinks it should be easy for the wind to move on because his time has come but at the same time, the wind thinks that the sun should be able to show compassion because he will be in a similar situation soon enough.
But nobody communicates this they assume that they both know. Seeing and understanding things from another person's perspective is very important but you can only understand what you see and if the other person's perspective is not explained how can you see?
"Lost in your head again Katey?" the voice startles her but in a welcoming way.
"Lydia" Katherine says and the smile on her face makes Lydia laugh.
"How are you love?" she asks wrapping her arms around Katherine's shoulders.
"Good, all things considered. How are you?" Lydia asks as they sit on the park bench.
"Just the same as you"
Silence settles between them for a bit, neither of them knowing which one is to speak first. The silence isn't awkward or strained it is just filled with uncertainty and that makes both of them nervous.
"Why are we here Katherine?" Lydia asks as she observes her friend. She knows why they're there, the message that came from Katherine only ever comes one time for the year. However, she needs Katherine to say it; she needs Katherine to set her own words free.
"I need to tell you a story," she says picking at her nails.
"Alright, and do you want me here as your friend or as a therapist?" she asks as she makes herself more comfortable.
