Seasons have a way of marking us. Christmas can be daunting for some but haunting for others. Summer can be refreshing for thrill seekers and exhausting for the sick. Weddings can be exhilarating for lovers and painfully poignant for the lonely.
We regret,
We forget,
We pain,
We shallow breathe.
Life has these seasons where the fragility of life crystalizes and we find what is truly important and we groan deeply with regret wanting to take back time.
Last week we found out that the best man from our wedding, a dear friend, a thirty year old with such purpose passed away suddenly. Our week has been a rumble.
Questions,
Regret,
And moments of gratitude for what time and gifts we have been given.
Life is terribly fragile. I think we believe that we have years upon years to flesh out the dreams we tinker with, but life slips through our finger tips, escaping containment, never asking our permission to run freely.
This last week, my husband and I have been talking a lot about perspective. We have been talking a lot about grabbing life by it’s handles and smooshing our face right in it’s very core. We have been asking of each other to believe the best, to let go of that which doesn’t matter.
If there were any parts of our life windows that were a little smoky and unclear, this last week has crystalized what is very important in our world and we are leaning in to find the grace.
Family is important, even when we continually do things that frustrate and annoy each other.
Friends are full of purpose, even if seasons have shifted, marriages, babies and jobs have hurried seasons along, pick up the phone, text or write. You will never regret the small amount of time taken.
Find what you were made for. Everyone of us has been given a unique message to bring to the world. Everyone of us has a voice that is so deeply different to the next. Sing your song, bring your dance, bake your goods, design that building, speak that manifesto. You were designed. You were delicately put together to bring something strikingly brilliant. Your voice is awaiting discovery and expression.
Things will never satisfy you. Life is about so much more than accumulating things.
God is always available for a chat. Even when you think he’s not listening He is. God is always available and open for business, He is seeking you down and longing for relationship.
Sometimes the most aligning seasons are the ones that you never dreamed would come knocking.
So on the weekend a sign told us that we could come and pick raspberry’s off the vine and fill up a container from a orchard on the way home. Normally I would see the sign smile and keep on driving, ticking off my list of accomplishments that needed to be fulfilled. But this week has unsettled me in the most satisfying of ways.
I piled my one year old out and let her run the orchard.
I explained to my three year old, how berries were harvested.
We shoed away the flies, we let spiders run across our produce, we picked prickles out of our feet and we picked our own raspberries off the vine.
Life I am determined to suck out your marrow.
Life I will not miss moments with my children seeking greener pastures.
Life I will find you in your fragility and I will not take for granted the precious simplicity of my today.
Life you were created to live graciously, even in the seasons that do not make sense.
I will dance in my darkest, I will sing even when I have no voice left, I will write words when they refuse to surface and I will not take for granted the time I have been given.
Time can never be taken back, but we can take back control of how we use our time.
Every moment, every second, every breath is precious.
Snuggle someone close by, Let go of grievances that just don’t matter, Speak words very slowly with kindness.
You never know what tomorrow may bring.
Ps- I am going to be taking a break from technology for a couple of weeks, so until after Christmas things around here are going to be a little quiet. I wanna snuggle my kids without a phone in my hands and take some brain pictures creating memories rather than digital ones.
Merry Christmas and love the ones you’re with…
