Recognising our micro-seasons
What 72 tiny transitions can teach us about renewal.
While we’re over here dividing time into neat, predictable frames of four seasons, twelve months, fifty-two weeks, the Japanese recognise 72 micro-seasons. Yes, seventy-two! Each one lasting about five days, with names so delicate and poetic they sound like diary entries from Earth itself: ‘Dew glistens white on grass’, ‘Wild geese wild north’, ‘Salmons gather and swim upstream’, ‘Mist starts to linger’.
Every five days, the world renews itself just enough to deserve a new name.
This very week, according to the Japanese calendar, is the season when ‘Swallows leave.’(September 18–22). A five-day window held in language to mark the fleeting migration of birds into memory.
The word season itself comes from the Latin satio, a sowing, a planting. It wasn’t about weather charts or calendars at first. It was preparing the soil for growth and noticing when it was the right time to plant.
What if… we borrowed a little wisdom from these micro-seasons?
What if… instead of waiting for January 1st, or spring, or that elusive “someday when life gets easier,” we began to honour the tiny transitions happening all around us?
What if… we started naming our own micro-seasons with the same tenderness:
The tiny corners of the house start to sing
The first coffee on the balcony
When old photos stop making my heart ache
The plants outgrow their pots
Every five days, a chance to begin again. To sow something small. To notice what is already growing.
Shagufe Hossain, a life lesson contributor from Bangladesh, once told us:
“In the space where everything is uncertain, anything is possible.”
Always renewing,
Team FUEL
PS: If you had to name the micro-season you’re in right now, what would you call it? Would love to know in the comments below!