Never Wither Your Dreams in Winter

Dear lovely people,

It’s no news that in winter, days get shorter and so plants can’t photosynthesize for as long in the day and so can’t make as much energy. It is also colder, and so their chemical reactions happen slower. During this period, plants have three options: Try as much as the can to survive; Use more energy to try and keep warm or Sacrifice their leaves, but use less energy all winter.

It is possible that plants tried the first two at some point in evolution, but that the plants using the third option survived better and so this is what stuck and this is what plants use today. Some evergreen plants, survive all year with their leaves. They have several strategies for this. One is to have needle-like leaves – this reduces the amount of heat-loss by decreasing the amount of leave exposed to the air.

Plants can tell the season by both the length of the day/night, and the temperature. Plants can sense the length of the day and the night, and so can tell what time of year it is (days are longer in the summer and shorter in the winter). They use compounds called ‘phytochromes’ which determine the amount of light and then send signals around the plant, telling it to either grow more leaves, or let them wither and die.

Plants also sense the cold – not just the temperature, but also how much cold there has been. Plants will lie ‘dormant’ (when their leaves have fallen and they conserve their energy in the winter) until they have had the correct number of cold days to know that spring is coming. They then send signals around the plant telling it to start growing back ready for the return of the warm weather. Plants also use the day length to determine when to start flowering, which is why different plants flower at specific times of year.

You find that plans have over the years, developed strategies for dealing with harsh weather conditions such as winter that present them with untold difficulties on their growth and well-being path. What do you do when the winter of difficulties strike your life?

Imagine that after all the beautiful dreams to change the world, the wonderful plans, the strategies and hope for a better day in your life, the harsh winter of failure, deception, acrimony, bad faith, discouragement, failing economy etc. hit you so badly. Many are the lives that have been destroyed just like that, millions are those who have given up on trying. If you really want to success as much as you need to breathe, you will dump your leaves of blind-rocking, mediocrity, extravagance, lack of focus, fear, inertia etc. and take time off to reconstitute so that when the summer of a clearer vision, a clearer mindset, and rejuvenation comes, you resume in a better way or start all over?

After all, Winter Solstice marks a central part of nature’s cycle. It is a time of new growth, rebirth and renewal. It is a reminder that in order to begin anew, the old must end. It is the time of year when we pay homage to the darkness of life’s mysteries, while still keeping our faith. Spring will come again and so let yourself and your dreams spring up anew.