Karla’s Korner: Tis The Season

Tis The Season….

While traveling along one of my favorite stretches of a rural Virginia roads this week I noticed shriveled brown stalks of corn filling the fields where just a few weeks ago tall green ones stood in their rows pointing toward the summer sun. In a matter of what seems like a blink of an eye the lushness of summer has been replaced by the fading shades of fall. There’s a crispness in the early morning air and multi-colored leaves have begun to clutter the back yard. Numerous social media posts filled my newsfeed this week regarding the sadness of the last day of summer as we rang in the first day of autumn. Maybe, just maybe I am a bit of a weirdo but I am excited about the change in seasons. As much work as it is to gather the leaves, deal with the acorns scattered across the deck I view fall as the window to winter the season of slowing down, warm blankets, bulky sweatshirts, crackling fires and the pre-cursor to spring the season of renewal and re-birth. You see, each season has a purpose and in order to get to one we must go through the others. There are four seasons, each bringing about its own uniqueness and serving a purpose. There is a reason for each season.

Life has its own seasons as well and it’s important to pay attention as each one feeds into the next. This week my son will turn 17, my dad will turn 80 and my husband and I will mark 26 years of marriage; all on the same day. When my boyfriend, now husband proposed to me over a pot of green beans cooking on the stove (exactly a year before we married) the season of our lives began to change. No longer were we boyfriend and girlfriend but we were engaged making plans to spend the rest of our lives together. Exactly a year later we met in the front of a little country church, made a bunch of promises celebrated with family, friends, food and cake and entered the season of a new marriage. Becoming parents, first in 1993 and again in 1998 our life season changed yet again. No longer were we just the two of us; we became three and then four. None of those seasons were easy. Yes, there were some easier parts to each but as with the seasons of weather our life seasons require preparation, work and adaptability. Each life season takes time and cannot be rushed, however, looking back it seems as if those seasons passed rather quickly. With one out of college and working her first “real” job and the other preparing to graduate high school and head off to college we anticipate another life season, one that will leave our home a bit quieter, with less laundry, fewer dirty dishes and no more “hey mom have you seen my ___(fill in the blank)_____? Whether we are ready for that season or not we recognize the fact that there’s nothing we can do to stop it; it’s going to happen whether we want it to or like it.

What season are you in? Are you in the spring of your life, filling it with the newness of marriage, babies the busyness of parenthood? Or are you in the fall, anticipating the empty nest that brings about a bit of sadness for you and excitement for them? Somewhere in the middle lies summer where we tend to forget the other seasons; we fill up our days moving along until we realize the changing of the leaves or in the big kids who have managed to take the place of the little ones we’ve become so used to having around. If we are fortunate winter comes much later and slower in life; yet it is just as necessary as the others.

Lailah Gifty Akita founder of Smart Youth Volunteers Foundation wrote “Every stage of life lay the foundation for the next stage of life. Treasure each stage of life.” Whatever life season you are in I encourage you to embrace it, live it to the fullest knowing that whatever it brings it is preparing you for the next.

Peace,
Karla

I think we all need a touch point a place we can go to be inspired. Karla is my children’s teacher, a good friend, and a person with a heart of gold. I hope that her words will inspire you to do more. We are only as good as the people we surround ourselves with. It is important to listen with your heart and proceed with your eyes open. Enjoy!

Read more Karla’s Korner, also please visit Karla’s Lifetime Moms page and read her articles.

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