Tis' the Season

I love the Seasons. It's a huge part of why I love living in the MD/VA area. In order of preference for me - Fall, Spring, Winter then Summer (I hate heat - sweating while doing nothing does NOT appeal to me.). When Fall comes, I sometimes wish it could go on forever. When Summer is here, I feel that I could be done with it almost immediately. But the fact is, even though I wish my favorite seasons were longer and my less favorites shorter, I wouldn't want to completely rid myself of any of them.

This is also true with the Christmas Season, which brings wonderful things as well as some not so great. We all have our Christmas Season loves and hates - things that are joyful (family, food, lights, traditions, etc.) and things that bring stress (um family, shopping, travel, traffic, etc.). Today in our MOPS meeting, we were discussing this Christmas season. Stories filled the room. Great memories of Christmas traditions, neat ideas for things to do with the kids and advice from more seasoned moms about how to navigate some of the more stressful holiday situations. During one of the discussions, our Pastor's wife said something that struck me...

"This is a season, enjoy it and let it go." She wasn't talking about Christmas, she was talking about life.

Enjoying certain seasons can be difficult. I'm ready for certain seasons to end once they begin (like Summer). But letting go is difficult too. Even though Summer isn't my fave, I don't like letting go of certain things that come with Summer...like going to the pool, wearing flip flops, thunderstorms, and long days (I'm missing those right now).

And I LOVE Fall, but even Fall has it's challenges, like my allergies and shorter days. And try as I might to hold onto Fall and those beautiful colors, the leaves turn and end up on the ground all the same.

It's sometimes hard to remember to enjoy the current season we're in. To embrace it. To make the most of it. For example, as a mom, I have times where I think to myself, "Boy, I can't wait til Jackson is done with _____", or "Things will be easier when Jackson is older and can ___."

Yet, as much as it is difficult to enjoy the current season, it's sometimes even more difficult to let go. One day, Jackson will be all grown up and I'll REALLY not want to let go. I'm sure to be nostalgic about the times when he did depend on his momma more. But this new season of life will be here all the same, and I'll need to embrace it.

A friend of mine gave me some really good advice recently when we were discussing past seasons of life and I was wishing to get back to how I felt during one of them. She told me something a friend had told her once, "You'll never succeed if you measure your progress in terms of how far backwards you can go." How true. On a somewhat similar topic, C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, "It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill. Let the thrill go - let it die away - go through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follows - and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time.

So whatever season you are entering, exiting, or in the midst of I hope you can embrace it and enjoy it...and then let it go.