Day 42 - Seasons

Life is full of seasons. Seasons of joy and play. Seasons of hardship and despair. These seasons are markers for our life story. They tell of our journey: how we got where we are, which turns and veers we decided to make, and who joined us for the ride. Seasons are the times we grow, change, and surrendered. Times of hope and faith, or times of uncertainty and fear. Some seasons are soft and subtle with whispers of transitions, while others are brutal and anxious, with transitions full of tears. But with all life, and all growth, we all have our seasons and they will come and go regardless of our plans.

Today I spent some time thinking about my seasons. My childhood seasons were filled with play and fun, laughter and sweetness. As I finished out my teens my seasons became more varied, filled with highs and lows. Depression slipped into my life and some of my seasons were filled with darkness, while others were filled with opportunity. Life was so powerful then and my seasons were filled with so much newness and growth. Seasons of becoming a woman and an adult. College life and finding myself. And through my twenties my seasons were about finding happiness, meaning, growth, and my future. Seasons filled with death, disappointment and coping with the hard understandings of life. Seasons filled with love, three new lives, and learning to become a wife and a mother. Seasons of success and promotions. Seasons of education and empowerment. So many seasons, so many lessons, and so many changes. Those seasons were tumultuous, rewarding, and filled with grace.

And here I am... now in my early thirties and my seasons have been intense. Powerful. Full of extreme struggles, faith, desperation, surrender, complete joy, new peeks of wisdom, and forceful.  But they are definitely seasons, one changes into another like winter turns to spring. Each so different and so complex, but with new struggles and new hope. I am in awe of how big my seasons are now. How life changing they have been. How God is renewing me and molding me even though I am tumbling from one to another. But each season brings hope and new fulfillment and understanding of life. New blessings in the bright and dark. New knowledge that seasons must come and go. That I can survive the difficult ones and bask in the bright ones. I see that when the bright ones do come, I need to bathe myself in them like I did when I was little and fill them with sweetness and laughter. And when the windy ones come I just need to hang on. Hang on like hell if I have to. But they are seasons and I must live them just like everyone else. 

When I think of the seasons of life. I think of hope. Hope is what gets us through the seasons full of darkness and hope is what warms us in seasons of joy and promise. We have the power to clasp hope and take it with us through every twister, rainy day, or ray of sunshine. We can hold it close to our heart to give us strength when we transition to and from the seasons in our life. The amazing and the difficult, the melodies and the tears. And hope reminds us when we need it the most, that we are never alone and that our Creator knows every season we have been through and He will know every season we have not yet entered. And He will be there through all of them until our life story and all of our seasons have finished. I take comfort in that. I find peace in that. I find hope in that. And while this particular season I am in sometimes feels gut-wrenching because I feel lost; the hope in my pocket and the Creator by my side reminds me to open my eyes to all of the droplets and the life around me. To feel blessed for every season that I am in because all seasons have hope of change, growth, wisdom, and life lessons. All seasons have their own distinct beauty. And I know that when I am done with the seasons of my thirties I will look back with more triumph and love, as I do with those before me. And so on, and so on, through the whole journey of my life.

For everything there is a season, 
a time for every activity under heaven. 
A time to be born and a time to die. 
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8(NLT)