It is quiet now…the two of us sitting on the porch enjoying the cool of the evening and some space from all that has transpired today…then in her characteristic strong yet quiet southern drawl she offered, “The seasons of life are changing.” I pause to let her reflection wash over me for a moment and then I respond, “Kind of sounds like the rhythm of life.” A slow but steady smile spreads across her face as she says, “I knew you’d understand.”
“Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?” – Stevie Nicks
The birth of a child… leaving home…starting a career…establishing one’s own home…starting a family…a move across town or across country…the end of a career…the loss of love ones…and hundreds of other greater or lesser events and occasions that bring a change of season.
At times with countdown clocks and great expectations these seasons of change are much anticipated. At other times they are dreaded, denied, even avoided with great hope that someway, somehow they will not happen.
“Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m getting older too
Oh! I’m getting older too” – Stevie Nicks
Resistance, however, in the end is no match for the inevitable change in the seasons of life. For this, as it has always been, is the rhythm of life.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted…” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
We had sat quietly for quite a spell and I thought she might have dozed off when she opened her eyes and said, “If the rhythm of life and faith has taught me anything, it’s to be grateful for even the hard seasons, lean into the present season you find yourself in and know either here or in heaven another season is coming.”
May love and laughter
Light your days
And warm your heart and home;
May good and faithful friends be yours
Wherever you may roam;
May peace and plenty bless your world
With joy that long endures;
May all life’s passing seasons
Bring the best to you and yours!
~ Traditional Irish Blessing