Noticing time, and hence slowing it down, is why I make seasonal fun lists

So, last year, to make sure I really savored the season, I created what I called a Spring Fun List. This was a list of activities that I could do to celebrate the warming weather and the blossoms.

Nothing was far from my house. Nothing took more than a few hours. But between visiting Holland Ridge Farms in New Jersey, taking 30 pictures of 30 depictions of flowers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and doing a 1000-piece hummingbird puzzle, I created a lot of spring-focused memories. Now when I think of spring 2021, I think of eating a lobster roll from the Cousins Maine Lobster truck while looking at acres of tulips. The season didn't just disappear into the past like water under a bridge.

This sense of noticing time, and hence slowing it down, is why I make lots of seasonal fun lists: Five a year — for summer, fall, the holidays, winter, and spring. If you're looking to make your weekends more adventurous, you might try making these lists too. You'll create memories rooted in specific times, which makes time in general feel more rich and vast.

There's nothing too complicated about making, say, a summer fun list. Think about what makes the season feel like that particular season for you. When you get to the end of summer, or to the end of the holiday season, what would you like to say you've done? To me, summer doesn't feel like it's started until I've gone strawberry picking, and fall needs at least one trip to an apple orchard. I like to see The Nutcracker ballet every Christmas (in 2020, with no live theater, I streamed an old Nutcracker performance online).

If you've got a vacation planned somewhere, you can certainly put that on your seasonal fun list, but ideally, most of the activities will be within 100 miles of your house — doable in half a weekend day if you'd like.

Aim for 6–12 items. That's long enough to make you start planning, but short enough that getting through the list will be doable.

Think about what time is available, and when you might be able to make each item work. For instance, that fall leaf peeping hike at a nearby state park might work best on a non-rainy Saturday when you only have one kid soccer game, early in the morning. That summer trip to pick peaches, on the other hand, might be quick enough to happen in between a baseball game and a birthday party. Be sure to include some activities that are doable at home, or during non-peak times (I listened to spring-themed music last year, including Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, while driving kids to school).

The operative word is "fun." To make it on a Spring Fun List, a Winter Fun List, and so forth, an activity should be something you genuinely want to do. You may need to mulch your yard, or bring down the summer clothes from the attic, or wrap a zillion presents for your extended family, but those activities can go on different lists. What would bring you joy?

In the years that I have been creating these seasonal fun lists, I've seen that they have a few benefits.

First, I have a lot to look forward to. If I decide I want to see a concert at an outside music venue during the summer, I'll look through concert lists and get tickets for something, and then smile a little when I see that on the calendar for the next two months. That is a lot of anticipatory pleasure!

Second, I'm rarely at a loss for what to do with my kids on a weekend. When I plan my family's weekends (usually about a week ahead of time) I can look at the weather, look at the activity schedule, and then pull something from the seasonal fun list to round things out — be that ice skating, or tubing down a river in summer, or biking or whatever else.

Third, I get to know my community better. I recognize that not everywhere has four distinct seasons, but most communities do have their beautiful spots that are best at certain times of year. Annual local events that take place around certain holidays can become traditions. Each year I aim to try a few new things, and when I do, new places can become favorites.

And finally, seasonal fun lists change the experience of time. When days are all the same, time becomes amorphous. This is a particular problem in middle age, as life lists toward routine, and so time seems to accelerate. But little adventures make time more noticeable. A fall hike through shiny red maple leaves encapsulates October. Zipping down a snow tubing hill amid frosty white mountains crystalizes the experience of winter. Time doesn't just disappear. We don't ask "where did the time go?" when we remember where the time went.

So why not try making your own seasonal fun lists? I'm working on the spring and summer ones now. Time passes whatever you do. But these lists are a practice that makes time feel more like a rich tapestry, rather than a slick linoleum floor.