Seasons

 

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

“For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man’s trouble is heavy upon him.  If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?” Ecclesiastes 8:6-7

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

While reading Firstlight, a collection of essays from Sue Monk Kidd, I was moved by a particular passage in her essay titled: The Sacred Ordinary. In it, Sue details her struggles with finding the holy within the everyday. She had just returned from a retreat to a monastery, and was bogged down by the mundane tasks of motherhood. She shares a moment when her son, then three, asked her about the day of his birth (or, as he asked it, “the day I was borned”). A phrase that Sue shared will bring nostalgia familiar to all, not only mothers: Make the most of every day. Time does not stand still.

Thinking of the way it is referred to in the essay, the passage of time and how our children grow up, always brings a lump to my throat. Sometimes I try to “think” it away, reminding myself that everyone changes, that there are great moments ahead (as grandparents? Hopefully!). But I think maybe God wants me to live in that moment of vulnerability, that moment of sadness and grief for what has passed. And, perhaps, thankfulness that we experienced those moments at all! These moments are not just reserved for parents…many of us can recall moments from our past that we remember fondly. Maybe even more fondly as time passes. The phrase “rose-colored glasses” comes to mind, implying that we tend to remember an event as more fun/exciting/satisfying than it actually was as we were experiencing it. Nostalgia is powerful!

I also find that each season, the scent in the air and the feel of the sun and its position in the sky take me back to previous years (during that same time). Additionally, as I’ve taken many nature photos this spring and summer, I’ve noticed the migratory pattern of our Nebraska birds, not to mention those birds making their way through Nebraska from northern locales. It might make me sad to think my photo sessions with the dickcissels and blackbirds of the prairie are finished for another year, but I must remember that “to everything there is a season”.

Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to be thankful for the seasons in my life. Help me to be aware, each day, each moment, that you have been generous to me. Show me how to be "in the moment", to appreciate my life as it is unfolding. Let gratitude continue to be a part of my life. Amen.

Donna Gustafson (photo by Donna of a wren in the fading summer light)