Debbie Howells’ newest book The Last Days of You and Me is out now! Get your copy here.🧡
While I was writing The Last Days Of You And Me, the theme of our lives having seasons seemed to write itself into the pages. And in the most obvious way, the changing seasons are the backdrop to all our lives. Take the contrast between summer’s long light days and winter’s short dark ones; the impact it has on our mood, our energy, the way we live.
❄️ The story opens in the dark days of winter, of stark trees, overnight frosts and watery landscapes. In the lives of the main characters, it’s a period of going inwards, of reflection on the sadness and losses of the past.
🌸 But it’s also a time when there’s a hint of change on the horizon and as spring makes its presence felt, the landscape starts to come to life. The tiniest leaf buds lend a haze of green to the landscape, the flowering bulbs much welcome colour, the lightening days bringing the streets to life. In the characters’s lives too, change takes root, in the tentative beginnings of new friendships, of opening doors and glimmers of new chapters that await. After winter’s retreat, it’s time to start moving forward.
🌞 Spring sweeps them into a summer of long hot days, a time to celebrate life; of abundance. In the book, as relationships grow and deepen, there’s the joy that comes with that. There’s also an awareness of the fragility of life.
🍂 But nothing lasts forever. Summer will always lead to autumn, the trees shedding their leaves; a time of letting go that happens in our lives, too. All of it part of a natural cycle that will endure – with or without us – before winter returns. And if we hold tight to everything in our lives, we leave no room for the new to come in.
Our inner journeys may not always follow the seasons. There are times in all our lives when maybe because of a sudden loss or illness, or maybe some other personal crisis, we need to withdraw from the frenetic pace of life and allow ourselves time alone to heal. It’s all a part of the journey each of us takes, of the change that drives us, the joy that lifts us, the sadness that draws us back to ourselves. Our lives are about all these things – light and darkness, joy and sadness. Without one, we cannot know the other.
It’s about finding the flow, too, and going with it, pausing to see what each season has to offer us, knowing the darkest of winters will end; that there will always be another summer.