Seasons

A striking leaf at Mount Sutro this past weekend

I felt good today: on top of my game, on top of most tasks, competent and high-output. I was celebrating that with someone and then they asked me when the arc I’m in would end. Next Tuesday, I said, then realized with a thud: I feel good because I’m at peak performance, but I won’t always be. I’m at peak momentum, peak output, peak clarity. I’m executing and navigating. I’m doing fancy footwork. But everything has seasons, and this particular phase of this particular project isn’t forever. If this is summer, winter is coming—a time to slow down, regroup, reflect. Slowing down can feel so bad after glimpsing my “best,” most productive self, for a shard of time. Yet what the perspective of winter gives me is the clarity that there are nice things about slowing down, too. There’s coziness, comfort, and quiet. The heat of intensity will come again.