Seasons of Life
There is one constant about life…it changes. It changes sometimes when we least expect it and sometimes we can see it coming, either way it changes. My dad used to say, “Nothing stays the same forever!” I never really gave it much thought but it seems the more years I’m alive the more truth there is to this. Life is funny how you can hear something you're whole life but not really know it or understand it til later.
I never will forget this conversation I had with my dad shortly after his heart surgery and the docs told him he wouldn’t make it without a heart transplant. With this news he just smiled and said no thanks. He said he wasn’t about to spend the time he had in and out of hospitals and that there are worse things than dying. Which reminded me how many times growing up he told me, “I’m not always going to be here to show you how to do these things, you gotta pay attention kid!” He would tell me this when we were changing the oil, out grocery shopping, cooking, and of course when he would take me shooting and I just thought yeah, yeah, ok dad. Wish I would’ve paid a little more attention! Well when the docs tell you news that no one wants to hear, you pay pretty close attention!
I was driving and dad was in the front seat, we were just talking and then he began to explain the Seasons of Life…
He said, “You know kid, if we’re lucky we get to live through all the seasons…spring, summer, fall, and winter.” I had no idea where he was going with this but I was all ears and holding back tears. He didn’t want any crying around, so I had to keep it together. He always stressed how important it is to keep it together during the event and then after you can loose it and deal with it however you need but not while it’s happening! So he went on to explain, “We are born in the spring. Our childhood is spring and we are learning to bloom. Then after we grow up and leave home we come into summer. Summer is when you’re becoming an adult and having babies and careers, like you are right now. Then when your babies grow up and leave home you move into fall. Fall is the time when you get to watch what you’ve worked so hard for come into their own and when you get to stop working so hard and relax a little to prepare for the next season of winter. I’m in late fall and not going to have a winter. Some never make it out of spring, so I’m lucky I’ve make it to late fall.” At this point, I was sobbing on the inside but didn’t let it show or at least that’s what I thought. I know he knew I was breaking but he wanted to keep talking and explaining and knew he had been preparing me all along from the beginning. So he went on, “Winter is when things begin to die, sometimes slowly and sometimes with a quick snowstorm. And that is how life is and how God created it and who are we to question it! We just try to understand it the best we can and then make the most of whatever season we are in. Everyone is in different seasons at the same time. Do you understand what I’m telling you, kid?” I sat in the driver’s seat, beginning to realize that I’d be in the driver’s seat from here on until my time comes to explain the Season’s of Life to my boys…my heart was breaking and I felt like my whole world was crashing down around me but I just looked at my dad and said, “I understand dad.” Even though my brain understood my heart did not…it’s still trying to understand.
I’m a different person now than I was then…I’ve learned lots and continue to do so, after all isn’t that what life is all about…keep learning and keep doing and keep loving…Life is ever changing!
I want to make the best of this ever changing life, the good and the bad, so I’ll KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON!
