Seasons of life can look like the typical 4 earthly seasons. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. But seasons can also come in day and night. Seasons of life can also be similar to stages. A season with kids in diapers and a season when kids start school or move away to school.
Embracing seasons of life is going to be how you see change and that’s exactly what seasons represent.
“Life gets better, not by chance, but by change” John Rohn
Have you found yourself fighting to hold onto a past season or, if you’re in the newborn or diapers season, longing for the end of a season?
I feel like my season of life with little babies is never ending, with our fourth baby on the way any day now. It can be easy to let myself slip into a place of complacency or even complaint for the current season of life I’m in. But just like the 4 changing seasons of our earth, our life stages continue to evolve if we notice it or not.
Any more seasoned mom will tell you to hold onto the little years because they go so quickly. So why does it feel like they drag by slower than a herd of snails traveling through peanut butter?
EMBRACING SEASONS OF LIFE
Why does it feel like your winter is dragging on or your summer is never ending? Why does it look like this stage of motherhood is continuing on forever?
How do you handle the season you’re in with an appropriate response? You can’t get rid of it, so it’s time to get wiser, and time for you to change since seasons come and go without your consent.
“Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better” John Rohn
Here are some tips for fully embracing and understanding your season of life.
UNDERSTANDING SEASONS OF LIFE:
- There are different levels of winter, spring, summer, and fall. Be aware of your position within the season. Is this economic or personal, long or short, temporary or permanent (get realistic) what is the severity of the season?
- Spring follows winter (every time), even if winter feels longer than usual and spring was too short.
- When opportunities (big and small) come, you have to learn to take advantage of them when they’re here (and recognize them).
Take time to reflect for a minute and notice your past seasons or even the season your’e in right now. Don’t just look for seasons in relation to the earthly seasons but remember that seasons are stages too.
Sometimes just admitting your’e in a season with kids and you can’t do things you could when you were in a season or stage with out kids is part of embracing a season and allowing yourself time to rest in that stage.
WHAT DOES LIFE SEASON MEAN?
Life seasons are stages or places of change. It’s not hard to look back over your life and see the seasons. Winters probably tend to stick out best, but remember that there are other seasons too.
RELATED PODCAST EPISODE – Transitions in the Big and Small
We recently moved out into the country and I became a true gardener. I had a garden in our “city” house but it was nowhere this robust. The best analogies I’ve found for seasons and stages have come from my garden.
As you plant a garden in the spring, there are things that come to take it almost immediately. Bugs, heat and other little intruders. You have to set up your garden for protection invasion. You have to defend your crop. You will be challenged in the spring seasons of life, learn to tend your garden.
What I mean by all this is even though you may be coming out of a winter and into a time of new growth and new life, remember that you have to be proactive to see the good and protect from the bad. Steer clear of letting your guard down or assuming good will just come after you’ve had difficulty. This could be setting yourself up for more winter.
If you’re from Texas, springs are short, so you have to embrace them and don’t let them slip away before you have the chance to plant.
And remember in the spring you don’t have anything to reap yet. That comes later. You deserve to harvest what you’ve worked hard to protect and grow. Don’t feel guilty for a bountiful harvest and know that there will be some falls that don’t produce as much as you planned as well as some that overproduce.
As you plan your fall harvest or as you plan a new season of life where you hope to see progress and production keep in mind to be brave and bold. Dream bigger than you think you should or could.
“It’s better to fail big than to only ever try small.” Jen Brazeal
PODCAST SERIES – Becoming Bold Series with Wynne Elder
REFLECTING ON LIFE SEASONS
Years ago I had a series of things go wrong one after the other. Not small things either, but big things. Life altering and shattering. I found myself frustrated with God, asking him why he was letting this happen to me. Even the small things seemed to take the tiny bits of hope I did have left and give me discouragement instead. I kept wondering why He would do this to me?
In desperation I was talking to a close friend and she mentioned how He holds me as dear and special and I AM special. She told me to say it to myself in the mirror, and it was then that I realized, the Lord wasn’t doing this to me. He wasn’t out to laugh or poke or mock me.
I recently opened a hard drive on my phone and for some reason it went back to years ago and pulled up specifically that season of life. It pulled up one of the most life changing events.
I was in a terrible car accident in College. Some time after the accident I went to the salvage yard my car had been hauled to so I could get some of my items that were left in the car.
When I saw my car I was in disbelief. How I had survived all 7 of those flips and pounds was beyond my wildest dreams. I really want you to click over to Jbrazeal.com/seasonsoflife and see those photos. They are so impactful.
I’ve never really talked about that accident and all it did for me, the good and the bad. Years later as I look back on it I remember the process of healing, not only physically but mentally and I see that I was changing. I was evolving and blooming out of winter and into a spring. Although it was a full blown winter it created the path to change.
It’s only when you can look back that you can see clearly the change.
HOW TO SIMPLIFY YOUR SEASON
Too often you may find yourself in a season and you’re not sure how you got there. Yes, things happen without your consent but also it felt like it was just winter and now you’re back again. Or it felt like you were done with that struggle and here it is once more!
So, take a moment and look around. Reflect. Embrace. Rise.
If you find yourself trying to live outside your season and skip the hard stuff or the stuff that you feel totally lost in, tell yourself that this is where you are for now. As you begin to embrace it you will begin to rise and soon enter into a new season.
I’ve found that as soon as I stop longing for the progression of a new season and sit with where I am the more fully I can live in the present.
When it comes to simplifying your season that’s really just a chance for you to fully hold onto where you’re at and find contentment. It’s when you open up to your season that you can start to see where the change is coming and love the place you’re at.
Remember that longing for what’s next only leaves you longing for after that as well.
BLOG POSTS RELATED TO SEASONS OF LIFE:
Transitions in the big and small
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