Beauty in the Seasons
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” —Ecclesiastes 3:11
If there is one guarantee in life, it's that seasons change. Even when the spring rains seem to never let up, even when the summer temperatures bleed into fall, the next season will always make its appearance. Fall, winter, spring, and summer always come, bringing with them some certainties but also a distinct version each year.
On Eras
Seasons are one of the greatest metaphors for life. Taylor Swift calls them "eras" when describing her music through the years. Thanks to T. Swift, it's become a trend to name our eras.
I love a good list, a 30-day challenge, or creating a new rhythm to meet a need in my life. So, I love seasons and the natural change they bring to life. My kids have been in school again for a few months, and while we love the freedom of summer, everyone in my home benefits from getting some structure back. In Southern California, October always means waiting for fall-like temperatures that last all day. It might be cool and foggy in the morning, but by noon, we regret choosing to wear a fall sweater and jeans.
In life, seasons aren't always determined by weather. Seasons of singleness and marriage, seasons of babies and toddlers, teenagers, and launching young adults. Building careers, earning degrees, finding and creating community, starting new things, and dreaming new dreams. Some seasons have very defined beginnings and an end. Others blend slowly from one to the next.
These seasons of life, these eras, can be full of beauty, life, pain, and hardship. One part of your life may be in a life-giving season, but another area may feel like the dead of winter. Your family may be thriving, but you feel like you're drowning in your career. Your romantic relationship may have ended, but there is a sweetness to how your friends support and love you through that transition.
What’s Your Season?
If life is made up of seasons, how do we navigate through each era? A few simple reflections can guide us in identifying our current seasons, fully embracing our eras, and leveraging seasons to our benefit.
Review the primary areas of your life: family, friends, career, faith, and personal well-being. Identify how you are feeling about each area of life. What season does it feel like in each? How would you name your era in the various parts of life, and what has brought it on? For example, if it's your "sweatpants and cozy socks era," is it because you've been hustling and need a season of rest? Or are you struggling with motivation and depression, and sweats are a symptom of a deeper struggle?
In some situations, we can make choices to try to end a difficult season. Perhaps you're unhappy in your career; you can apply for new jobs, advance your education or begin to investigate a new career path. Other seasons are determined by circumstances beyond our control. Seasons of parenting are often determined by the developmental stage of your children. If you are burnt out on changing the diapers of your 6-month-old, you're going to have to wait until the baby is older to get out of that season!
Embrace and Reflect
Embrace your era. If it's especially challenging, try to find the gifts of your season. You have a lot of power in determining the narrative of your life. Simply changing your thinking from "I have to" to "I get to" has a lot of power. Driving kids to and from school each day can be monotonous and exhausting. But I promise you, one day they will be driving themselves, and you will miss their presence in the car, listening to their music and picking up snippets of their life in conversation or listening to them talk with friends as you drive carpool. I rejoiced when my two oldest daughters got their driver's licenses--but it was bittersweet, and looking back, I am even more grateful for all the hours spent as their personal Uber while they deejayed the Bluetooth.
Take time to reflect back on past seasons of life. Reflect on the highs and the lows of those seasons, and often, that can help us embrace where we find ourselves currently. We remember the things that were hard to navigate, such as the sudden loss of a job, broken family relationships, or deep personal pain. But looking back, we can see how those situations helped us grow, developed our character, and increased our resilience, giving us the ability to walk with others through similar circumstances. With time (and often intentionality), we do heal from our wounds. Remembering our hard times and how we came through them can give hope for a current winter season and a reminder of the promise of spring coming again. Soaking in the beauty and joy of easier and fruitful seasons can help us through the falls and winters that will inevitably come.
A seasonal perspective of life can help us live in the moment, embrace the joy and the pain, and leverage our current season to our advantage. When my kids return to school, I often start a new workout routine, clean up my eating, and develop a rhythm for the things that are most important to me in life. By the time summer comes, I'm ready to relax and sleep a little more on my days off, enjoy the sun, sand, and salty ocean air, and take slow sunset drives. I need these different seasons, these varied rhythms in my life. Find your own rhythm for the season you're in.
A Beautiful Mess
During a challenging season with young kids and a full life, I wrote these words:
"And let your life be a beautiful mess. The mess won't always be there. And when you look back, as I have been, it's the beauty and preciousness that stands out. Embrace the day. Embrace the mess. Embrace the beauty."
The seasons of life shape us. We learn to prune back in the fall, to trust the work that is taking place beneath the soil in the winter. We eagerly embrace the first buds and blooms of spring and glory in summer's bounty. We never stop learning; we never stop growing. We can trust that one season will end and a new one begins–and we can make choices to push into the next season. Identify your era. Reflect, embrace, and leverage your season.
There is beauty in every season.
[Scriptures for further reflection: Ecclesiastes 3, Daniel 2:21, Galatians 6:9, Psalm 1:3, Psalm 27:4, Psalm 37:7, Psalm 31:15, John 15, Acts 1:7, Isaiah 43:2, Isaiah 43:18-19, Isaiah 46:10, Luke 1:45, 2 Peter 3:9-0]