This is the story about four sisters we all know very well, but not many know that they are siblings. Their names? Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Winter. Like in any family they all had very different personalities and some had stronger friendships with each other than the others. Summer and Spring were the careless ones who were always playing and dancing together, admiring each other’s beauty and the joy they brought in the lives of the people. For Autumn and Winter, it was a different story. They had their own little special relationship. See, even though Autumn could count on some admiration of the people as she gave the leaves and landscapes special shades of color, her heart filled with compassion when her sister softly cried her white flakey tears. Winter loved the people just as much as all the other sisters did, but once she appeared they all ran into their houses to hide until it got time for Spring to reappear with her carelessness and joy.
Autumn knew she could do nothing to change people’s minds about her sister, so instead, she made sure that she would be welcomed into a world that felt like home. She made sure that all the branches were empty, the roofs washed by her rain and the streets swept by her wind, so her sister would be able to lay her snow freely on the world. It was only when all the branches were empty and the streets and paths clean that Winter would know it was her time to come.
Because she cared so much for her sister, Autumn did her job with great dedication. She would go from tree to tree and take each leave individually, until one day she stumbled upon a tree that stood all by itself in the middle of a meadow, far away from any other tree, plant or flower.
‘I’m here to take your leaves,’ Autumn said to him.
The tree softly shook his branches, as if stroked by a gentle breeze.
‘Can I please keep them? They are my only company. I’m here all by myself and none of the people want to visit me.’
Autumn could of course understand, as she had seen how much pain the loneliness had caused her sister.
‘Okay, you can keep your leaves for now. I will come back later to see if you are ready by then to let them go.’
Every few weeks Autumn returned to the tree to ask if he was ready to let go of his leaves and every time he pleaded and pleaded. Autumn with her gentle soul was not able to force him.
And so it happened that the entire season passed unnoticed. Since there were still leaves on this tree, Winter did not know it was her time to come, until Spring made her entrance again, dancing right through the streets, announcing her presence in full force.
For the first time in centuries, Spring and Summer came without Winter ever showing herself. And that’s when people realized how much they had missed her, that life was simply not the same without Winter. From that day on people were welcoming Winter with a smile and warm words. And Autumn herself? Well, the tree saw the leaves on his branches fade and turn grey. He watched from a distance how his brothers and sisters all got new ones. Every single one of them but him, since he had clung so much to his old ones. From then on, every time Autumn came around, he greeted her as an old friend, leaving his leaves to her wind to grow into new things all by themselves.