Let’s face it – Maine doesn’t do spring well.

Our summers are balmy but not too hot or humid, inviting outside activities such as hikes, kayaking and swimming. Our falls are bright, crisp and invigorating, inspiring more walks and drives through the countryside. Even winters have their beauty. The wonder of a sparkling, softly remade landscape the morning after a snowfall is something Southerners will never understand.

But spring? Rain and sleet, melting gray snowbanks, mud, brown stubble in the fields and bare trees. It’s not quite what cherry blossom time in Washington, D.C., offers.

A better way to understand the rhythm of our Maine seasons was suggested by the late novelist Kurt Vonnegut during a speaking engagement at the Maine Center for the Arts several years ago. Forget the traditional notion of the four seasons, Mr. Vonnegut said, and think about six instead.

Under what we’ll call the Vonnegut Variation, each season holds sway for two months. January and February are winter. Cold, snow and ice, expect to wear your warmest coat every day and to incur the highest heating bills of the year. March and April are “unlocking,” as Mr. Vonnegut called it, or the “opening” season. Don’t expect flowers, but the frost will begin leaving the ground, buds form on trees, and the sap flows.

May and June bring us spring. Ice has left the lakes, the grass greens up, and black flies return. July and August, coinciding with the school break, are summer. Glorious fall reigns in September and October – warm days, cool nights, bright colors. In November and December, the “locking” or “closing” closes the year. The leaves leave, the ground begins freezing and the sky darkens.

One advantage to this arrangement is that the “seasons” start on the first day of a month and end on the last day of the next month. Easier than all that confusion over equinox and solstice, on the 21st, 22nd, or is it the 20th this year?

Another advantage is the brevity. Not a fan of fall? Or of “locking”? Surely you can endure it for two months.

But most importantly, the Vonnegut Variation helps us understand the weather, and the effect it has on the Earth. Twenty-first century life has weaned us from these natural cycles. The six-season view would sharpen our focus. And, as Mr. Vonnegut told the MCA audience, “This is going to improve your attitude so much, particularly in this god-awful climate.”

So when the vernal, or spring, equinox occurs today, think of Kurt Vonnegut.