Embracing the Changing of Life’s Seasons

We’re at my favorite time of the year right now. The in between. The segue between Summer’s exit and entrance of Autumn. The passage from the movement and activity of the growing season into the slowing down and introspection of the dormant season.

Fitting that I should be returning to writing after over 3 months away, isn’t it? After living my life in a certain way for almost a decade, the winds changed direction and I’ve been called to explore new paths and new frontiers of who and what I am and what my life can be. But more on that in a future post. For now, we’ll talk about when seasons change in our lives and how we can learn to accept the uncertainty of change, not as a curse or a burden, but rather as a blessing and an opportunity.

When we come to an end, or are approaching one, it’s natural for us to experience a mix of emotions. There may be excitement, anticipation and relief that we’ll soon be free to do something different and new. But there may also be anxiety, fear, and even panic at not necessarily knowing what’s next. We will likely have both, ebbing and flowing within us as we wonder, “What now?”

Uncoincidentally, this is the lesson I’m learning from my garden right now as I make the final harvests of the year.

This photo is from today’s gathering. Ever since the beginning of the year, I’ve been nurturing the vision of my garden producing bountiful fruits. I’ve held space for each plant through watering, fertilizing, mulching and weeding for all of them to fulfill their purpose and to contribute to the beauty of not just my backyard, but the beauty and majesty of Mother Nature.

And now, that vision is being realized. Not at the lush peak of my garden’s growth as one might expect. But rather at it my garden’s waning and its descent towards death.

Which may sound macabre. But it’s true, isn’t it?

The purpose of each plant is ultimately to sustain life. Not its own single life for ever and ever. But through the seeds of its fruits, to ensure that life will continue on when the new growing season begins again and the planting of seeds becomes viable. To make many future gardens and future harvests possible for years and decades to come.

And this is also true of us as humans. We will embark on many journeys in our lives. Times of planting seeds in Spring. Time of quickening, surging and expanding as we move into Summer. Times of receding, slowing down and contracting at the start of Fall and soon times of harvesting and reflecting. And then times when we are in between in the stillness of Winter.

And the in between time is ideal for envisioning, dreaming and imagining. To allow ideas to find us and enter into our minds so they may inspire us as they take root. To give ourselves permission to consider the endlessness of what’s possible. To reflect on what we’ve done and accomplished and what new frontiers we are now readied to explore. To ask ourselves, “What do I actually desire? What do I truly wish for?” instead of what we’ve been conditioned to desire and wish for. And to allow ourselves to become filled with internal growth, abundance and clarity of thought that will eventually give way to external growth, abundance and clarity of manifestion out in the world when the next season begins. To live our lives with direction and purpose guided by our internal compass within.

But we have to wait. Waiting until the time is right to plant the seeds so they’ll have the optimal chance for growth and the fulfillment of their purpose. Waiting for the fruits and gifts of the growing season to fully process internally so they can inform real growth that ascends us, rather than keeping us in an illusion of growth, where we’re repeating what we’ve always done and somehow expecting different outcomes.

We can’t plant a seed in frozen soil and expect it to immediately grow, right?

And yet, many of us approach change in that way, don’t we? We nurture the unrealistic expectation of immediate gratification, effectively skipping over the beauty, growth and expansion of the entire growing season and trying to fast forward to the end. Which makes no sense, does it?

Now if you know that you’re not the best at waiting or being patient, what better way to learn? To acknowledge the discomfort of patience not as a sign that something is wrong or that you’re wasting your time or that you’re headed in the wrong direction but perhaps as a sign that you’re moving out of old patterns and actually approaching new beginnings? That you may be right on time in the process of allowing rather than forcing change to take its course.

So take a page from Mother Nature’s book. Allow yourself to enjoy the harvest at the ending of life’s chapters. Accept the gifts of the growing season as it completes itself. And then use those harvests to sustain life and growth in your world. Life in the moment that inspires life everlasting in the future. Planting seeds within that will eventually give birth to growing, nurturing and harvesting what you desire and wish for. And enjoying the in between until the time is right.

Which you will know just like the melting snow and warming days of Spring. When the soil of your life is ready for new seeds to grow.