An artist is acutely aware of seasons.

Not merely the external phases we experience due to the Earth's orbit around the sun, those seasonal passages are a continuous cycle of life which every human being, artist or non, is easily mindful of. Those seasons do not affect the rise and fall of an artists’ artistry—at least not substantially. The seasons I am referring to, are the ongoing phases in an individual’s life that require depth of insight, and the self- knowledge to help evolve them as an artist, creator. These abstract seasons help them reach the truest person that they are in each present moment, and pushes them upward, into who they aspire to be. In truth, this applies to each and every breathing human soul, whether artist or not. It is especially the artists amongst us, with their creative gifts and courageous takes on the joys and pains of life, that truly embody the cyclical process of the seasons that I speak of. Here is where difficulties are faced, solitude is embraced, and as many deaths as necessary are endured. These processes help bring forth what exists inside, outward and into the natural world.

To understand these seasons, I must explain what is taking place. An artist has their own interior orbit. This is where their entire being circles around an internally channeled source, giving them access to artistic abundance, or lack thereof. This interior orbit is purposeful and required, and inextricable in an artist's process. Without it, an artist is left unreceptive to inspiration. The orbit brings about seasons, and every season is composed of a necessary phase of experiences and development allowing an artist to be born and reborn. What follows is for their art to be created, celebrated, and finally for the artist to die (again). This death, symbolically -speaking of course, is oftentimes as painful as the real thing.

The process begins with an artist asking themself— even in the dead of winter, with snow falling all around them, the question, Am I in winter? Or, in the midst of a hot summer day, even while laying on a beach, skin burning underneath the radiant sun, the question must be pondered, Am I in summer?

Because, it ain’t necessarily so.

The only way for an artist to know what season they are in, and what they should truly be responding to internally, is to observe their own lives, and the calling of their soul. To distinguish between the seasons and to respond appropriately to each, an artist must begin by asking questions which prompt reflection. Then, they should begin to observe the signs. So, artist…

Is it your winter?

This is a time where your art is frozen, and the calling to create has been muffled or muted. You lack inspiration to create, and you can’t find a single muse. You tell yourself you’ve lost it, but in actuality, you’ve only lost sight of you. A resurrection is required of the artist themself. Once this takes place, the art that comes through, not the person you used to be, but who you presently are, will come rushing in. Thus, your focus should not be on creating anything externally. The focus should only be on creating a deeper, truer, reflected upon, digested, version of you. If you are truly in the midst of a winter, silence and aloneness are the means to complete the task at hand. This is where you cultivate yourself and dig deeply into the warmth of your soul, to squeeze the benefit from this burdensome, satiating, needful, expanding solitude. Reflection is the sword you wield–cutting away at the weeds, sharpening your senses, remembering what you’ve learned. Your winter is as important as any of the seasons, if not the most important because this is where you, the artist, is born again.

Are you in your springtime?

This is the time when you feel awakened. Slowly, as you unthaw, you begin to feel the warm urges of the art itself, and life around you starts to quicken! It is a time teeming with energy. Your inner blossoms begin to tingle, your appetite increases. Opportunities are brought by the wind to fertilize your creative soul, and the very heart of the people attune to your own. You are being called to bring forth what’s inside of you, once frozen, and timid, now finally— OUT. This is your time to express what your new eyes now see. Your vision has sharpened from your quiet time in the season before, where you became better acquainted with the artist you are now. This is where you create.

Or, perhaps you are in that blessed, blissful state called summer?

We all know what summer is. It’s the easiest season to endure. Everything you’ve created for this moment, is now featured in the light of the sun. You are seen. You are heard. You are praised. Your time of being alone, struggling to give birth to your new existence, worried over a frozen and hibernating artistry, has given birth to a craft that you are ready to share. Solitude is replaced with a bustling audience. You gain their appreciation, and life is a rolling applause. Your days are an invisible stream of green lights. You have given a part of yourself in your art, and all that you had to give. This makes the positive reception that much sweeter, because you are now affirmed. Your gift has been accepted and admired. The art you gave birth to, is now on display, and you are celebrated for it. This. Is. Where. You. Shine.

Or, have you made it to the fall?

You are now experiencing the aftermath of a well-received recording or show, publication, presentation, or viewing. You’ve exhumed your gift and properly facilitated your talents in order to share your art in the unique way that only you can. The final moments of your season are on display, bursting with color, as if you held the sun from summer, and need to resolve those amazing moments with one final show. Irresistible to all, is the proof of your artistic beauty. You are celebrating. But as the phone rings less, and the opportunities simmer down, and the invitations go quiet, I hope you will not fear the falling of your human leaves. I hope you will see the time ahead as necessary. You were never meant to give year round.

Don’t be afraid to retreat, alone, as you head into your winter. Ask the question: What new art awaits deep inside the wilderness of me?

Only your winter… only your hard-fought time alone… only reconnecting with who you really are, can answer that. Embrace your fall, nonetheless. Do not fear that this is where you'll begin to feel death. For this is a glorious death, like that of a caterpillar going into it's cocoon, hopeful and at peace, anticipating it will be reborn as a butterfly.

A final plea is that you try to be patient and understand that unlike the temporal seasons, an artist's internal seasons can vary. They can last much longer, or much shorter than we are accustomed to when we experience them within their corresponding climatic representations. We are familiar with the consistent shifts of our climate-based seasons like clockwork, and with scientifically measured expectations. With our internal seasons, there is not a right or wrong time span. All one can do is remain true and authentic in response, and within each phase– tending to the needs of the garden soul as it whispers its need and direction. One cannot stay in summer past its term. Nor can we shorten our cold and most dreaded winters. We can’t hold back fall. We can’t conjure spring. What we can do is obey the processes naturally, as they are, to reap each part of the journey's fullest, and most transformative reward. Acceptance and Surrender are how we access what each season has to offer.

It is delusional and destructive to seek or expect a thing to be, any other way than it is. Denial will suppress the artist and their art, and hold us much longer in a season which we may not prefer, all because we avoided surrendering to the higher plan. It is a plan greater than our own, which we can only, at best, unsuccessfully seek to control.

So accept. Surrender. Become an empty storage, and available for what is ready to flow through you next.