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The Four Seasons of the Mind
Lindsay Collier
Each October I set aside a day completely devoted to taking in the incredible autumn beautyof upstate New York where I live. I jump into my 38 year old TR3A and spend the day driving thehills and valleys in and around our Finger Lakes region. There are few places more beautiful and Ido some of my best thinking while driving. I think it has something to do with the purr of the enginecoupled with the constantly stimulating visual display. This year while making the trip it occurred tome that the seasons are a very interesting metaphor for creative thinking. Each season provides adifferent metaphorical twist to our thinking and, when we put these all together, the overall result just might be spectacular. Let’s play with this for a while.Autumn is a time for shedding a lot of the well-rooted, mature ideas that have been adding color toour lives, but are getting tired. The great colors of summer give way to even more spectacular autumn colors. The falling leaves represent our ability to break current thinking patterns and theultimate composting of these leaves represents the great idea enhancing value that our combinedexperience and learning gives us. The absence of leaves exposes the wonderful trunk and branchstructure of the trees, which gives us a nice metaphor for the backbone of our thinking. If you werea child growing up in a seasonal climate you probably felt compelled to save a few of the more beautiful leaves and this is a good metaphor for building on past idea nuggets. The
autumn seasonof the mind
is the time to challenge and shed old thinking and get reacquainted with the principlesand values that support your thinking. Late autumn brings that first killing frost which ushers us intowinter thinking.Winter is a time for quiet thinking, contemplation, and introspection. As an author I find winter ismy best time for writing and for generating some great new creative ideas. Deciduous trees, bulbs,and perennials are storing energy in their roots and gaining strength during the winter because theydon’t have to
show off
for a few months. A lot of our creative thinking is blocked by our need to
look good
and
show off.
Winter thinking suggests that we think below the surface without worryingabout how we will be judged. A blanket of snow just adds a little more security to protect those new,creative, and fragile ideas. As winter wears on, evergreens and the basic structure of trees that became exposed in the autumn can really strut their stuff. Since these are great metaphors for the basic principles and structures that guide our thinking it helps us to stay in touch and build fromthem. The
winter season of the mind
is the time for understanding the roots of your thinking andinternally energizing the seeds of new ideas.And then comes spring when everything comes to life again. It’s also a time for massive cleanup, asany gardener knows. This is when new plants (ideas) really begin to grow and are nurtured along bywarmer temperatures, longer days, and rain. We rake, prune, cultivate, fertilize, plant, aerate, and
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