Seasons

No matter how much you anticipate it, wish it were different, or enjoy it just as it is, the seasons are always with you, embracing you with messages.

For example, Autumn releases its beautiful burgundy and gold leaves to reveal the bare bones of a tree in all its splendor: the unique arrangement of branches etched against the winter sky!

Only then can you understand that the beauty of a leafed tree is not because of some perfect symmetry of branches, but in a balance of weight created by a wide branch here, and three narrow ones on the opposite side of the trunk, an outreach of branches further up, and a shorter, sturdier one lower down. The tree holds most of this hidden when it “re-leafs” what you might have considered a haphazard arrangement of limbs.

So, too, creating and maintaining a balance in your life is not about being symmetrical.  It’s about how you respond to the seemingly random events which appear and join you on you Journey:  grocery shopping, car repair, vacuuming, listening to someone’s sorrow, rejoicing in someone’s happiness, unexpected phone calls, creating and responding to email, care-giving, focusing your attention at work, being with friends, etc.

Can you trust that the God who loves you beyond all telling, is still with you even in the midst of it all?  As you go about meeting the day, may you be strengthened in the awareness that no matter what, you are always being encouraged by the Holy One.  Whether the day is lean or full, whether you experience a winter of your faith, - days of seemingly endless trudging to keep your head above water, - anxiety about the upcoming holidays, or the hum-drum of the ordinary day-to-day of your life, may you embrace the Divine Presence who upholds and sustains you.

Blessings to you no matter what you encounter or create.  May you continue to radiate God’s love whatever the weather or season inside or out. – Jackie F.