I think when I was younger that it was easy to spend a lot of time looking forward to the “next” season. I looked forward to spring when it was winter, fall when it was summer, the holidays, vacation, and more. I looked forward to the seasons of my children’s childhood as well.
In some ways, I looked at each “next” season as the unfolding of a book that I couldn’t wait to read. That was not a bad thing, but I discovered that it was much like a great novel that you read so quickly page by page that it ends all too soon, only to cause you to wish you had savored each page a little longer.
It was that way with other seasons as well. I felt my heart yearning to slow down how quickly my children were growing up. It seemed impossible to believe in what seemed like the blink of an eye that they were grown and gone starting families of their own.
Of course there were some seasons I was eager to be rid of because they were difficult or painful. Separation from my husband due to military deployments was never fun. Unemployment seasons were never easy either. Seasons of loss of persons I held dear weighed heavily on my heart. I wondered if some of these hard seasons would ever end.
Little by little I began to discover that each season had value and held things for me to discover about the Lord, the world around me, and also me.
I also began to recognize that “a season” was its own journey of ups and downs within it. I didn’t need to wait until “the next season” to have variety. I responded differently at the outset and the end than I did in the middle. I think that I was less patient in the middle.
In the course of life and a great variety of seasons, I have learned to be more content about each one. I feel no need to rush or push the one I am in the midst of. Even though I may anticipate the next one, I have learned to be more content in the one I find myself.
As I was choosing annuals to plant around our home this week, I paused to enjoy the varying colors and types from which to choose. These would require my attention to water and weed to flourish.
I also took time to notice the last glories of the spring flowers. These require little from me except my enjoyment. They start with such small things like crocuses and then march forward with more showy and colorful delights for my eyes to savor.
Spring is in full bloom at last in Ohio on a recent walk…
I have begun to identify with Paul when he writes these verses in Phil. 4 (The Message):
“Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.”
