They say with age comes wisdom and for the most part, I believe that to be true. You have more life experiences under your belt at age 40 than you do at age 20 for example, and these life experiences give you the wisdom to make more informed choices as you navigate your everyday world.
But I have realized that no matter how many candles appear on one’s birthday cake, age and wisdom will continue to go hard up against the way our brains work and process things. I speak specifically to the parts of our minds that view something as forever when, to be blunt, it absolutely is not.
My brain is one of those that seems to work that way, much to my detriment. I do not, it must be said, view everything as "forever", but when I am in a season that is hard and difficult and I am trying my darndest to make headway, it can be easy to view what is going on as... forever.
But it really is just a season.
Here's the tricky part about seasons though: we never know how long that particular season will last. When we are having a good season, everything is brilliant, right? Everything is magnificent and in the most beautiful technicolor. Remember in the film The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy steps through the door after the tornado and everything goes from bland sepia overtones to this wonderful world of color? That is what a good season is. It is goooooooood, and we want it to last.
But life is not made up of one big giant season always and forever. It is made up of many seasons, ones that ebb and flow. Seasons made up of valleys (and those valleys are hard!) and seasons made up of mountaintops, where we feel invincible, and how can life get better than this moment?
At times, when I am in those low valley seasons, I can forget that I am not in a state of permanence. It is easy to give in to the despair and think "I guess this is how it's going to be from now on". When I am in a particularly difficult season and everything looks barren and desolate, it can be hard to believe that proverbial seeds have been planted and the flowers of my life will start to burst through the ground after a particularly brutal winter.
It can be hard to remember that spring always comes. We will always bloom where we are planted.
It reminds me of a classic song from the 1960's by the band The Byrds called Turn, Turn, Turn. This song came out during a time of upheaval and change in the world, but I find it totally apropos to modern life today. Many of the lyrics are taken from the book of Ecclesiastes1 in the bible, which I find fascinating.
"To everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under Heaven"
Chorus lyrics from Turn, Turn, Turn by The Byrds 1965
To everything there is a season.
This is a lesson that my many decades-old-brain has to relearn over and over and over again. (How many times must I?) Seasons don't last, everything is always moving and flowing, never staying stagnant. Those hard seasons, I have to remember, they are just that: difficult and yes, it may just threaten to swallow me whole.
But those good seasons, those ones full of magic and bliss? Those I have to breathe in deeply and carry with me, like a pocket full of sunshine. I have to imprint those seasons of joy in my brain to remind me that when things are bad, the good comes around eventually. Those seasons where I am riding that proverbial wave, I hold those moments in both hands so that when the waves eventually crash on me, I can knowingly climb upon my board and learn to ride the wave again.
Seasons change.
And I will change along with it.
See Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
What a superb read Mackenzie. I couldn't agree with you more about reminding ourselves of impermanence. That yes life is seasonal and as you say so eloquently when experiencing the good seasons..."Those I have to breathe in deeply and carry with me, like a pocket full of sunshine." I'm wholeheartedly with you on this.
A good uplift on a gloom day in February. Bravo and thank you, Mackenzie.