I’m from the equator. We don’t have seasons where I’m from. It’s taken me a long time to get a feel of the seasons and the rhythm of life. It still isn’t intuitive.
Bad: I struggle at this time every year because of how short the days are. Things will only get better from here, but it’s hard.
Good: I’m prepping beets and beet greens, and chard that I got from the farmers’ market. Food is cheap and nutritious (I go right before they drive back to Salinas). It gives me a sense of the seasons.
What’s the rhythm of life in a place without the four seasons? Where I’ve lived and spent most of my time: life is broken into the monsoons. You haven’t experienced tropical life until you’ve been inside a nice warm tropical home, waiting out the rains. The rains aren’t fierce and cold, like they are elsewhere. The rains are warm and mostly friendly. Most times anyway. The rains bring good things, like mangoes.
My wife grew up in France, despite being also from the equator, but I didn’t. I don’t associate Christmas with specific weather, nor anything with weather.
But I feel the shortening of the days acutely: that the sun isn’t on ‘full blast’ from sunrise to sunset is something that deeply unsettles my brain and my soul. When I wake up and it’s dark and foggy, I get very sad.
I’m used to sweating gently when I wake up, and to warmth in general. I’m getting used to not having it, but my soul is not
My favorite ‘we have no seasons!’ Story about growing up 1 deg north of the equator:
My family believed for a long time that we were allergic to winter. Every time we went somewhere cold, we were incredibly itchy.
One day, I announced (after googling this): WE HAVE TO MOISTURIZE WHEN WE GO TO COLD PLACES!!
Winter travel has been much better since for everyone.
Everything about my body has evolved to adapt to equator living. I have no (yes, no) hair, like nearly everyone in my family, because my body is designed for sweat to immediately evaporate off me the moment it appears. I don’t even get the patches of sweat that visitors do. In Southeast Asia, I feel the warm breeze as my ‘default’ (even without AC). This also means I’m very cold when it is only slightly cold somewhere else. I have no insulation. Lol
For a long time I used to think that visitors to Singapore / Malaysia / Thailand were just making up how hot and humid it is, because I didn’t really feel it. It seemed dramatic. But now that I’ve left my home zone, I’m very cold when it isn’t cold. And I get it, I guess.
@skinnylatte Oh, wow
And I imagined everyone just hated it when the dewpoint gets above about 17C / 63F :)