Seasons of our life.

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It appears that the last vestiges of summer have left the Coast of Maine, and now we face what everyone is saying is going to be a very cold, very snowy winter.  Seasons come and go, and with each passing season the earth prepares and rebuilds itself for the next season.  Such is life as we know it as well.  With each new season of our life we prepare and build for the next season.

The question I have for you today is this: are you one who looks forward to the different seasons of life, or are you, like so many others holding on to the vestiges of things from the past?  There are things that you know you should let go of, but because they bring comfort, because they bring a certain familiarity, you just can't cut it loose.  If you are prone to this you're not alone.  Many, many people find it difficult to let go of things, myself included, but the seasons of our life are there to do just that, to help us out of what ever rut we might find ourselves in and onto a different adventure.

Today I want you to think about the different seasons you have been through and try to figure out what you have taken from each one.  What were some of the lessons you learned, and if you haven't learned from it, then why not.  I woke up this morning and we had gotten a tiny bit of snow, not unlike the picture in today's blog.  There was a difference in the feeling of the day, but that was not the only difference.  I was feeling that there was a newness to the next season of my life.  Since this new season was facing me, I wanted to look back and figure out what I had learned from the season that had just passed, or is about to pass.  I could write volumes about the changes in my life over this past season, suffice it to say it has been monumental, and with those changes have come new insights, new recognitions, and a new freshness to what I desire to walk in.  Such are the things that you should experience when you enter a new season of your life.

If you look at the four seasons that this planet goes through each year there are things that happen each year preparing itself for what is about to take place during the next season.  Nature's design is perfect and there is no need to worry about what is about to take place because what has already taken place has happened to prepare for the next season.  In your life the same can be said.  Without those seasons of fear, doubt, and loneliness you would not be able to appreciate the times of courage, certainty, and love.  Now having to go through periods of fear, doubt, and loneliness is not the best of times, but it does allow you to appreciate the opposites that will follow.  You can however learn from those down times and in this knowledge come to an understanding of what you do not want in your life.  When we are about to enter the winter months here in Maine, I think about what it will be like in just a few short months when spring finally comes back to our coast.  Each season here in Maine brings with it opportunity to participate in various activities that can only be done during that season.  Finding what you like in each season helps to navigate these times, and there is always a knowing that things will change again in the appointed times.  This is the same for the seasons of our life.  With each season we learn, we do, we experience different things, but there must be a knowing that it will all lead us to the next season, and then the next one after that.

No longer should we dread what is ahead of us, instead we should grab it with everything inside of us and realize that we are facing these seasons for a very specific reason.  I no longer fear what is about to come, because what is about to come is necessary.  If we never had winter we could never see spring.  Without a summer, then no fall.  All things happen in the perfection of the Creator, and so to are the seasons we go through in life.  If you can accept this premise, then you can accept those things that you are about to experience.  I would hate to think that I would never be able to see the changes in the seasons again.  Even thought I dislike the cold of winter, I know that just around the corner are new flowers, warmer days, and new life.  In each season of your life you should be looking forward to the growth, the warmth of new ideas, and new ways of looking at life, your life, your destiny.

It is time to embrace the changing seasons, and know that goodness comes from it.  As FDR once said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.  Never fear the changing seasons of your life.  As I said earlier, were it not for winter, we would never get to spring.  If you are fearing the next season of your life, all you will do is curtail what has to happen.  One way or another the seasons will come, and the sooner you can accept this the sooner you will be able to bask in the newness of each season, learning the lessons of each season, and rocketing your way to the season that will follow.  I am looking forward to the next season of my life because I know that growth will follow and I will have a new appreciation for the things of life.  Seek out opportunity to grow and set the intention that this season will be like no other and out of it will come a newness of why you are here and what you are supposed to be doing.