Regrets, I've had a few, but then again ...

Another year rolls by. With all of nature we humans mark time. We follow the seasons. The ancient Chinese learned that a well-lived life is one that learns the balance of nature and flows with it. In winter the animals hunker down, move more slowly, if they move at all. They conserve their energy. Wise humans do the same. The unwise ignore the seasons—like playing cricket in winter. Something doesn't fit. In the last century we conquered nature. Warm houses in the winter. Cold houses in the summer. Trade and transport mean we can eat strawberries in December. And if you can eat strawberries in December, why bother about the seasons at all! Looking out on our yard today, watching a lame deer burrow down into the snow so that only her head was visible, made me want to burrow down too.
Still, new year gives us a time to reflect, think about the year past, dream about the year to come—consider the mistakes and try not to repeat them; brush aside the regrets and hope we don't have more than a few, or then again, too few to mention. It's a useful time to take stock.
Years, too, are cyclical. The news media report that 2012 was the wettest on record in Britain. A relative in the north west told us yesterday that the last day it didn't rain was in March. In a very wet year, it would have been foolish to buy shorts for the sunshine. Better to wait for the cycle to change. Soon, they'll be banning hosepipes again, as drought replaces deluge. Part of the trick of living is to understand the times, watch the seasons, follow the changes. Go with the grain of nature and not against it.
This is all reflected spiritually. We have tended to make the spiritual side of life "supernature," as in "the natural and the supernatural." That's all well and good if nature and supernature are yin and yang, two complementary and essential polarities of the one Reality. It's not so helpful if "nature" is normal and "supernature" exceptional, or if "nature" is to be denied and "supernature" to be pursued, or if "nature" is the real and "supernature" is a fantasy. There is no ultimate separation of the spiritual side of life from the rest of life. Spirituality is part of nature. It too has its seasons that need to be carefully discerned.
So, for 2013 I am going to try to discern the flow of nature and spirit. What season is this?
I wonder if this new year is not a time for great advances and new projects and endless work, but rather a time of consolidation, paring away the dross, and concentrating on that which is immediately before me. Perhaps not looking for the new, but simply taking stock of the old.
I have appreciated the "get up and go" that seems to be in the DNA of the American psyche. It's what attracts millions of people to come to the United States each year. They want a piece of the action! It produces a "drivenness." What new things are you going to accomplish? What new goals are you going to set? What new territory needs to be conquered?
I am thinking that for 2013 I will abandon the cult of the new. Reflect on the old. Burrow down. Conserve. Wait for the snow to pass. How do you see the season?
+Ab. Andy