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STEP CHANGE By barefoot and blister free. Are you ahead of the game or do you lag behind? Here, we look at the seasons - those to keep and those to throw away. Inspirational! https://shinealightonlife.wordpress.com/2020/10/15/step-change-by-barefoot-and-blister-free/
What kind of walker are you?
Are you someone who is ahead of the game or are you someone who lags behind? Or maybe you are someone who is always on point or is at least some of the time.
Are you someone who is ahead of the game or are you someone who lags behind? Or maybe you are someone who is always on point or is at least some of the time.
I was thinking about this in June, when I finally got round to changing over my winter duvet to my summer one (yes, it was too hot sleeping under too big a tog).
I was also mulling this over recently as I wore my pink (thin) summer jacket out with my autumn outfit on underneath. Great for indoors but not for when the temperatures are beginning to drop outside.
I am usually ahead of the seasons of the year, or at least right in them, but this time it seems to be different for some reason. What is delaying me?
The circle of life
The concept of seasons has been an important one to me for many years.
I think the seasons of the year enable a whole cycle of life from the supposed barrenness of winter and the encouraging signs of new life in the spring; the full fruitfulness of summer and the harvest gold fest of leaf bounty in the autumn.
The ‘circle of life’, as we hear it called in the Lion King, has a familiarity to it and a sense of completion too.
I love the hunkering down in the winter. It’s a time when I get lots done at home, when there is less expectation for meeting and greeting friends and family.
It’s a time to be in the warm, where I write letters, or clear cupboards and throw as much post and paper away as I possibly can.
Then there is the spring when the bulbs start to flower outside my kitchen window. I plant them in brightly coloured containers that cheer me through the winter darkness until they reveal their secrets.
I love seeing the leaves appear on the trees and getting up early to the cool freshness of the mornings.
Summer is a time to relax, if I can. I am not in a sorting mood. I like to read books and take walks and enjoy time with friends and family. I like being by the sea but when the holiday makers are back in their hotels eating.
Then I get to have the beach to myself or to share it with fewer people.
Autumn is my favourite season. I love watching the leaves change colour over time and to hear them crunching underfoot on the paths. It’s as though I am walking on gold and I feel rich.
It’s like gold coins under my feet and I want to pick them up and put them in my pocket to take home with me. I sometimes make a garland with them.
Prime Time
Another idea of seasons that I like is in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. It talks about the fact that ‘there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven’ (3:1). So there are seasons to keep and seasons to throw away.
There are seasons to be silent and those to speak. Then there are those to mourn and those to dance.
These can take place in any natural season and can span many of them. I have spent the last four years, for example, sorting through many things of our own and things of those we have loved and lost. We have had to decide if it is the time to keep or the time to throw away.
This is not always easy to discern.
There have been times to offer an opinion and times not to. Sometimes we need to allow other people to discover things for themselves and it is best that we remain silent so that we enable them to do that.
There are situations in life when we must speak out and after we have done that to let the dust settle for a while.
And I have had more than my fair share of mourning. I am sure many of us have. But what of dancing? There is a time for this too, even if it boils down to dancing with the Strictly stars on a Saturday night in our living rooms or doing a class on zoom during lockdown.
(Has anyone else done this or is it just me?)
Transition
Then, of course, there is the Transition Season where we are betwixt and between, which brings me back to my current conundrum. A pandemic. We are neither before or after. We are right in the middle of.
Normal demarcations are there in nature but we are confused with our actions. Are we coming or going? Does it matter? (Apparently so when you take my temperature control into consideration).
Incidentally, Ecclesiastes has something to say here too: ‘a time to embrace and a time to refrain’ (3:5). All these thousands of years later it speaks directly into our current infection control measures.
Looking forward, we can only hope that not only do our actions fall into line with nature, but that our understanding of the times we are in accurately determine our activities. Let’s hope for a Season of Alignment to come.
This thread can be read here: https://shinealightonlife.wordpress.com/2020/10/15/step-change-by-barefoot-and-blister-free/
