Somehow, September has come. If you’re not like most, you’re avoiding pumpkin spicy things just yet and maybe even picking up half green leaves to prop back onto perfectly bendy branches. The thought of warm breezes giving way to biting cold and jagged driveway drifts that rip the bumper off your car make you dodge the leafy crunch just for one extra day, week, … can we make it to the end of the month?
When we think of endings, summer is one of those which must give way to fall and then winter. Unless you live in a nonstop trop, it’s just going to be that way. Despite attempts to see new buds, dodging the falling leaves only makes for a peculiar walk. And, since walks are a must, noticing the downward trend just has to happen.
The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. ~Socrates
This year, it’s been noticeably similar in life’s season as well. Since the days, and actually years, have somehow floated crunchily forward judging by my last post date, I’ve noticed the apprehension-tension is very similar. Somehow, time has not locked into a summer stasis of elementary and barely teen growth which is where I last left off.
No, I still await two who are trying out for the soccer team right now but both are teens, only one in middle school. And, their older brothers have both served overseas this year and even married. What?! Hold my leaves!! My daughters are working or in college or high school…can it be?
As a mom, the steps can be disorientating as you look around to see them actually soak in all there is of growing up and start to independently detach to become their own separate worlds. I can’t say the attempt to remember every little milestone hasn’t hit more than once. Waking up in the middle of the night to rock them back to sleep has been replaced with the sudden urge at midnight to pray they are not in enemy fire or surrounded by wicked roommates or that they simply remember they are always and continually loved.
The funny thing about seasons though, they can’t be stalled. It’s taken a bit of reconsideration to overcome the urge to hear small giggles and be in great matches alongside the younger versions of these great people I once held so young. The moments then were amazing even alongside the common troubles which every season has.
But, a relieving thought has eased the recognition that fall and winter are inevitable. That is, endings are only completions for further seasons. If there were to be no more springs or summers, fall would be overwhelming. The same is true for the other areas of our lives. On set, if a shoot were to end with no presentation or further productions, that would make everyone muffle the wrapster. On the unit, if patients never got better or had no place to go afterwards which is infinitely better, that would make the end horrific. As well, the yogi in me wants to disregard the fallen tree I had this morning but the balance to know every asana builds for future practice lets me appreciate the stumbles with the straights. So it is with momming, the little/big ones are on their way to further discoveries which are to be shared with gratitude.
We didn’t make it this far to turn around and say, “Wait, this is too far!” The path continues, the seasons are not for dodging. They are each uniquely there to embrace.
All the trees are losing their leaves and not one of them is worried. ~ Donald Miller
Christine Kent 