At night I toss and turn. Even Tango gets tired of it and jumps off the bed for a more still corner. Then as I am starting to awaken, I turn over once more into a little ball and try to get a few more zzzzz. You probably care little about my sleeping habits, so take note that I am really writing about the turn overs that occur in lakes.and then in people.
Lakes have several “layers” of water. Each layer is a different temperature, During the summer, the surface layer is warmest. In the fall, the surface layer cools.This dense, colder water sinks down through warmer water, causing the water layers to mix or “turn over”. A great benefit of this turn over is that oxygen is replenished in the lowest level of the lake in the fall and the decomposition gases are flushed up and out. Fish can now move to the bottom to winter over.
In the spring, as the ice melts and the colder water sinks again a new turnover begins with the help of spring storms and water temperatures increasing on the surface. Again, oxygen mixes into the water.Turning over is a new beginning in an aquatic system and a simple example of ecosystem regeneration in the higher and lower latitudes.
I wonder if that is how the term “turning over a new leaf” came to mean a time of change?
Who knows. However, the concept of a lake turning over is something we can apply to our own life. I know in my Wyoming locale, by the end of the winter I am stagnating, stiff, sore, cold at night, even sometimes bored. I can still physically breathe, but I feel stifled, gasping for some warm rays and colorful flowers. And then, sooner or later, the sun comes and the warming begins. My own inner layers start to warm up and mix, like the lake. Energy comes back. I want to be out and move my sore bones and muscles. The birds sing their prelude to the new season. Yet, sometimes I stay stuck in the way of winter, inside, reading, writing, being less active. I resist the turning over in the spring just like I resist the last turning over in the Fall. Yet I am comfortable in fall/winter ways now.
Turning over in the spring–getting reoxygenated and reinvigorated– means letting go of the last seasons. It is time to put away the warm comforters, turn off the television at night and for me, to put away most of the crafting stuff. It is time for a new pattern to the day, which includes arising earlier, walking, riding my bike and getting the garden work done. Tasks ad challenges are different from those of winter. I love the seasonal cycles. I love living according to the changing outside world. It calls me from sameness and teaches me new things every year. When we stop “turning over” with nature and allowing her seasons to renew us, we are beginning the transition to the next place. 
