Knowing Your Season
(S)he is like a tree planted beside flowing streams, that bears fruit in its season.*
The other day, I found myself sitting in silence on the steps of my front porch after having just put Cyrus to bed. The sun was still up (one of the benefits of day light savings) and I felt like I needed a minute to unwind away from the distraction of my phone and laptop.
It’s been a long winter for me, literally and metaphorically. I spent most of it holed up in my house with the curtains drawn, fighting colds and vitamin D deficiency. As I sat on those steps, I could feel a shift in the air. The seasons were changing, and it made me wonder if the same could be true for my own.
I felt something inside me tell me to look up and describe what I saw. Unamused, I began to describe the first object to catch my eye.
“I see a dead, ugly tree.” I sighed.
The same voice continued, “but soon it will surprise us with beauty and new life.”
Immediately, I felt the words, “that tree represents you.”
I’ve felt dried up and barren of any kind of fruit these past few weeks and even months, and I so desperately needed that reminder that this season isn’t my life.
“There is nothing in nature that blooms all year long so don’t expect yourself to also.”
I came across this quote on Instagram, and it shook a piece of me awake. Like an invitation to welcome the dryness, because maybe it wasn’t a threat to my inner longing to flourish. Maybe it was just a part of the process.
I began to wonder how often we discount seasons of our life as fruitless and uninspired, completely negating the very truth in how nature works. If our lives ebb and flow in seasons of planting, and waiting, and finally reaping the harvest, just as it is in nature; why are we so quick to beat ourselves up when our lives aren’t popping with color and brilliance at every turn?
I read that if a winter isn’t cold enough or long enough, the harvest isn’t as bountiful. The plants need seasons of rest and settledness, just like we do in order to thrive when it’s their time.
Maybe you’re not in the flourishing season right now. Maybe you can’t remember the last time you saw fruit in your own life. I’ll be honest, I can relate. But I would encourage you to be kind to yourself in these present moments and days and weeks. To know your season and remember the cycle. No seed sprouts over night. And like Amber said in our last blog, sometimes it’s the difficult circumstances that produce the most beautiful harvest.
This Easter weekend symbolizes death and re-birth, struggle and victory, planting and reaping all wrapped in one. Let it be a reminder to you that nothing in nature stays dead. And even when it seems like your season is permanent, like nothing new and beautiful could possibly emerge from the ashes of your life, that’s when rebirth is right around the corner. Your season is coming.
♥Alyssa
*verse reference: Psalm 1:3