SEASONS AND CIRCLES

My friend and Spiritual Director Michael recently had a cyber-conversation about life's seasons. After sharing it with a few friends in various stages of recovery, it seemed a post worth posting. 

Michael's Post of May 6, 2014:

Seedtime and harvest...  

I grew up in Los Angeles, in the suburbs of Lynwood and Burbank. The weather in Southern California might best be described as consistent. Or monotonous. New Years, Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas. They all looked pretty much the same. Evergreen plants and trees under blue skies with moderate temperatures. 

It's why so many residents go to extremes to decorate their homes for the holidays: to remind them which one they're currently celebrating.

Life doesn't work like that.

You plant in the spring. You tend in the summer. You harvest in the autumn. You rest in the winter. 

When you grow up in a region where it's always spring, you develop certain unrealistic expectations. Not only around seedtime and harvest. But around life itself and its seasons of change.

To the one who knows only one season, hardship and death are perceived as violent intruders into his perennial spring. To the one who understands the rhythms of spring, summer, winter, and fall, hardship and death are natural notes of life itself. In fact, she understands that death does not break into life, but life breaks forth from death; as Jesus himself observed, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24).

For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest...

God has made everything beautiful for its own time 
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-11). 


Are you "stuck" in one metaphorical season? Is it spring, summer, winter, or fall? What's it like for you?
 
How does this statement resonate with you--or not: "death does not break into life, but life breaks forth from death." Describe an experience you've had that supports this statement--or not. 

Not all death is of the "assume-room-temperature" variety. What experiences of life can rightfully be described as variations on the theme of death?   

What's a new perspective around hardship and death?

Is there a way, regardless of where you live, you might more faithfully honor the natural rhythms of the seasons of the year? Of the seasons of life?


My response:

M-
I read your words of wisdom and think of the slow, steady rebirth of the recovery process. For all affected persons, at a rate totally out of their control, the process unfolds. Like a pulsing bud miraculously pushing open to the beckoning sunlight or a peeping chick courageously cracking its shell and stepping out into the welcoming new world, the living creature seeks its natural next step, and the true wonder of God's nurturing is unleashed. Often the change of life form... the change of season... is more wrenching and frightening than smooth and comforting. Blinding Winter snow falls from harsh skies and chases away warm sunshine gracing colorful leaves; angry Spring clouds send rain after warm sun melts snow; blazing Summer sun overheats all living things after gentle rain nurtures springtime blossoms; and suddenly cooler Autumn air pushes out summer breezes causing foliage to die off and fall to the ground.
Yet in God's time, all is restored. In each season, hope for nature's next step keeps the cycle flowing... The cycle over which we have no control. What we do have is trust in the Father who makes all things good, and right, and true.

As Joni Mitchell said in "The Circle Game,"
"And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down...
We're captive on the carousel of time.
We can't return, we can only look
behind from where we came...
And go round and round and round in the circle game."