Tag Archives: seasons

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Seasons

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Seasons-  each of the four divisions of the year (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) marked by particular weather patterns and daylight hours, resulting from the earth’s changing position concerning the sun.

It is a fortunate thing, to be experiencing the spring of the year! A wise person once said there is no way to stop the seasons from changing. That is true in nature, and it is true for your life as well, just like the planet rolls around each year, inevitably bringing an awakening, a vibrant life, and slowly a return to a darker cold slumber. So do our lives move as well. The sad part is that there are over 7 billion people globally, and a tiny fraction ever evaluates their existence in any thoughtful manner at all. The seasons provide us with a natural lesson on how to appreciate things.  Do you pay attention? Or are you caught in your own thoughts?  Look at the seasons of life, and you will appreciate the experience more.  This begins with really looking at the thoughts you entertain, the words you speak, and the actions in life you take because of all of these things.

Season of Eyes Shut

It seems like people live their lives and flow through the seasons with their eyes closed to the change that is coming to them. Each year the seasons move by and with them a lesson. Still, the young person is too involved in the physical world and what other people think of them to pay real attention to the knowledge the world offers—a chance to love, enjoy, and find experiences that color our lives.  Very rarely do young men and women remove their conscious thought from what they want to accomplish to imagine how it all fits into the big picture.

Worrying about your relationships, jobs, and living arrangements dominates thoughts. Life passes you by, and all you try to do is collect as many things as possible. The value of things is temporary, but the value of experience stands the test of time. Youth is wasted on the young, and the spring is wasted on selfish, individualistic behavior.  As you get older and time becomes shorter, you realize there is a reason for this, and you become envious of the time you had that is now gone. Unfortunately, others are frittering it away with their eyes tightly shut, looking at themselves and ignoring the world.

Enjoy the Seasons

It is common in the area I live to look ahead to spring during the winter.  It gets dark early, there are major snow events, and the temperature is frigid. But it provides a unique experience people in areas which are warm all year don’t get.  There are cold hard moments that come in winter. If you pay attention, they will wake you up to the soft, warm moments that will come as the calendar moves toward spring and summer. We all need to appreciate more warm, soft moments.  Winter creates this appreciation.

Spring brings hope and renewal, and summer brings vitality, fall brings sober acceptance of change, and then we are back to winter again. The seasons mimic the experience of our lives. As we age, we go through seasons, but most don’t notice these things are happening.  We are young in the spring, and our summers are spent doing, going, collecting, competing. Fall is the time you realize there is an end in sight, and winter is that end, like it or not. We all hope our winter is a long way away, but………………we never know.

Be in the Moment of the Season

There is nothing as inevitable as the passing of time, and the human experience is a finite thing. Our seasons are flying by, and all you have to ask yourself is, are you making the most of it, or are you wasting your time?  It really doesn’t matter what you do.  The human experience is a gift.  Think of the magic of experiencing a snowfall or a warm summer day with a cool breeze blowing.  Or the fall when the leaves are changing, and the crisp weather is a harbinger of things to come.  The wonderful hope of spring that revives us.

Please pay attention to your life and the people in it.  Spend your time and money accumulating experiences rather than things. Things are finite and provide joy for a short minute.  Experiences lead to growth and sharing and a life to be remembered.

So spend a little time in your day to be a little more conscious of the seasons occurring inevitably on your calendar and life. It all starts where you focus your thoughts and what you appreciate about life in every season—the words you use to express this appreciation to others and the actions which result. So look at your seasons and take a moment to enjoy them all.

“Nature gives to every time and season unique beauty; from morning to night, as  from the cradle to the grave, it’s just a succession of changes so soft and comfortable that we hardly notice the progress.” ~ Charles Dickens

Wherever in the world you may find yourself right now, we are about to enter a new season.

“The beat of drums and the blustering of summer fade away. Everything becomes quiet, more introspective, sad. Autumn always comes with such beauty.” ~ Jaak Drees

 

 

Gratitude

Grateful for Change

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leaves change and so do we
A picture I took at a random location of the fall foliage.

 The lessons that nature teaches us are on display all around us each and every day.  All we have to do is listen and being fortunate enough to live in an area the has a distinct four seasons, I am lucky to experience these changes and I am grateful for it.

For many years I am ashamed to say that I never really enjoyed or contemplated too much about it, but lately, I can’t help but be amazed and think about all that the changes of the season bring to the world.  Right now it is autumn in Maine and that means that each and every day you will see a wide array of colors, red, yellow, orange and even brown.  This change where once there was only green makes you think and often about gratitude.

On the Surface

Seeing the leaves change is a pretty miraculous thing. To think that nature knows exactly how to work itself for the trees to survive is amazing, and further than that there is the show they put on.  I have been fortunate enough to see, bright-colored leaves reflecting on the still waters of a fall lake surface.  It brings many thoughts to my mind as I look at the colors and understand them for what they are. Harbingers of what is to come and we merely need to listen to hear their warnings and to learn from them.

Change Is Constant

One of the best reminders of fall is that change is happening all around us all the time.

fall is a season which depicts change
Leaves are falling all around, it’s time I was on my way.

You may not be able to see it visually, but everything is changing all the time.  These variations are usually never as visual as the leaves but they are as real.  Each relationship, job, and personal journey is changing all the time.

No matter what you do and no matter what you think of your current circumstances, it matters little because soon they will be different because things are always changing.   Just like the fall will eventually give up its life to the oncoming winter, so must we learn to let go of our attachments to this life.

It is the values of these changes that make them appear good or bad.  Yet aren’t they simply just experiences?  The fall season helps me to contemplate and understand the changes that are happening in life all the time.  I have a gratefulness inside for all of the changes that have happened in my life and that growth is not possible without change.

Endings Are Just Endings

Another great thought of fall is the twilight of the year, the ending of summer and how this season represents an ending in our lives.  The phrase “The Autumn of our Lives”, captures this effectively.

I have a problem with this phrase because we simply do not know with any kind of certainty when this life is going to end.   it may be over in five minutes or it may last another 30-40 years.  Nobody knows.

When you look at the fall it will have an ending, just as all of our lives will, but there is a hidden promise in the fall.  It is there in every nostalgic feeling and thought, that eventually, the spring and beautiful summer will come again.  We just need to be patient.  All things will eventually end, that is the way that the universe works.  All things have a beginning, a middle and an ending.

This is not a bad thing, it is only a thing.   So it teaches you to enjoy the summer, or the fall or the winter or whatever season you are experiencing right now because that is all you have right now.  There may never be another summer to look forward to, so not completely enjoying today is a foolhardy choice.

The fall makes me grateful for each and every day and what it has to offer.

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Life Lessons

Rhythm of Life

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Law of Rhythm- All things have a rhythm, a cycle, or an ebb and flow. 

There is a rhythm in all aspects of our life.  It is in everything from our daily routines to the natural world all around us. Things work in cycles, sometimes the flow is intense like a thunderstorm and others the flow is smooth and easy like a gently flowing stream. But all of your experience is moving as a part of a larger mix of the world.  Calendars, astrological movement, tides, and seasons are all easy to see examples of how rhythm affects your life.  Learning to dance with the tempo is going to determine if you are enjoying the ebb and flow of your life. Understanding that your life is a cycle itself can provide meaning and direction for you in your daily activities.

The Unsteady March of Creation and Destruction

In hindsight, looking at anything it is easy to see whatever it is as a fluid creation of yourself or life in general. But when all things have closely evaluated the ebb and flow of its creation are quickly revealed. All things have periods of intensity followed by those of easy creation.  Like the heating of iron to create steel, there are times of intense heat and those of significant cooling in order to create the perfect final product. Rhythm is the creative tempo of life.  In the life cycle of all things, there are times of creation, destruction, and preservation.  Each interacting with others to make or break all of the experiences we have in life.

The value here is to look for the rhythms in your life and see the tempo with which things are moving.  Jobs will come with an excitement of something new and leave as a mind-numbing obligation. The situation was the same but the rhythm of perception changes as you grow, and move to your own music. Look for the rhythm of your relationships and see how they ebb and flow.  People come into your life like they are arriving on the tide. They leave their influence and then are whisked away back out of your life.  Were they even really there?  This is important because as the song of life moves along you have to make room for new notes to appear and guide the rhythm where it is supposed to go.  Creation, destruction, perseverance only happen in a balance with the music of your life.

Natures Examples Observed

Look at the moon and how it works in a complete cycle, sometimes pulling the tides in and others pulling them out. This natural rhythm can be observed, documented, predicted and used to understand how our oceans work.  You can know what time low or high tide will occur on any date in the future with a simple observation and calculation.  The seasons work the same way, we know when the spring and fall equinox will occur as well as the summer and winter solstice.  If the rhythm of the seasons in our lives that allows us the chance to see how it works in other areas of our lives.

Farmers have been able to use the cycles of nature to predict behavior for many generations.  This information is used to decide when to plant or harvest crops.  Plants and trees develop and decompose based on the season. Animals also adjust to the rhythm of life as some migrate to warmer areas during winter.  All of this shows that you can adjust to the season which is upon you and thrive, just by being aware of what is happening to you.

The Pendulum

We see this come true in all aspects of our lives, from politics to business. Whenever something swings one way, right or left, it must eventually swing back the other way. Economies are continually moving this way as people go from stretches of spending confidence to periods of thrift, fear and holding back.  Each swing brings an experience for people in all economic brackets.  It makes sense then to not let any of the cycles we encounter in life make us too high or too low.  Maintaining an even keel through all the swings of the pendulum seems to be the healthiest mindset we can have.

By not letting the extremes of the pendulum effect you in a wild way, you are able to achieve peace and pursue your dreams. Calmness has a majesty about it which allows cool heads to prevail in difficult circumstances.  Learning to dance through the difficult times allows you insight, and wisdom about preparing when the good times come back again.  We can benefit from this philosophy in any area of our lives. Look for the patterns of it where you are so that you can predict where you are going.

“In the universe, in life, and in all things there is a season. A time for all things.”