What Season of Life Are You In?
As the seasons change, warm and wet fading into gray and damp and then cold and frosty, so, too, changes our wardrobe and daily items we need accessible.
This season, perhaps, there’s a pair of fur-lined, waterproof boots that rests by the door, ready to be slipped on to check the mail or let the dog out in the cold winter mornings. Perhaps the coatrack is fuller than usual with puffers and hoodies, beanies and flannels. Maybe things like gloves, firewood, space heaters, and thick duvets in place of thin quilts have found their way into your home as the season of winter is in full swing.
In a few short months when the Earth’s tilt and proximity to the sun give way to a new season yet again, these items presently useful and necessary will be put away and replaced with the next set of tools that serve us in the next seasons: flip flops and tank tops, portable fans and pool toys, beach bags and bathing suits.
This cycle of equipping and re-equipping ourselves with the relevant resources to each natural season is familiar and obvious.
We do it automatically and instinctively as we feel a need to be warm, to be cool, to be dry, to be comfortable. However, when it comes to the seasons of life and re-equipping ourselves as we move from one to the next, we seem to struggle more with letting go of old tools and picking up new ones that function more appropriately in the new seasons we enter.
Back-To-School Season, Moving Season, Postpartum Season, First-Time-Empty-Nesters Season, Grief Season, Busy Season, Recovery Season, Slow Season, Wedding Season…
Life has so many seasons, each one requiring different tools and readily accessible items to help us navigate them, no different than the 4 seasons of the planet. As creatures of habit, we struggle sometimes to remember that what once served us in one season, may not work well in the next, and we may need to temporarily shelve that “item” and replace it with a more apt tool for the season we’re in.
What season of life are you in right now?
What things might you need to “shelve” or “unbox” to help you better navigate this season? Maybe it’s less after-school/work commitments, more spiritual involvements, a standing weekly phone call with a friend, more rest than you usually allow yourself.
May you acknowledge the season you’re in as what it is— a season that will one day change again— and equip yourself with what you need for this season in particular.