Seasons

The past couple of weeks most folks have been doing seasonal stuff....like getting their yards cleaned up of the fall leaves and wilting plant life, and perhaps a bit of pre winter grass feeding to give it that boost once spring comes.  They've been doing all that, plus putting the yard furniture away for the winter, storing the lawnmowers, and prepping the snow blowers.  In other words, preparing for the next season.

As the upcoming winter comes to an end, folks will begin preparing for yet another season...spring.  They'll start thinking about gardens, flowers and plants, cleaning up any debris left over from the winter snow piles, yada, yada, yada. 

When speaking of Mother Natures seasons, almost everyone knows that there are preparations and thought that goes into each new season.  Many of our activities, as individuals and as families, revolve around seasons in some manner or another. So we think about them, and prepare for them so as to maximize our enjoyment of them.

How much thought is given to the seasons of our lives?  I would consider those to generally be:

• spring--birth to the 20's
• summer--20's to the 40's
• fall--40's to the mid 60's
• winter--mid 60's till death

There is a lot of flexibility in the life seasons of spring through fall, wouldn't you say?  While I don't really sense that any one life season is more important than any other (they all serve a purpose), perhaps if there was one that was slightly more important, it would be the winter of our lives.  I say that because it is the preparations that takes place in the summer and fall seasons that have such a profound effect on us when we reach that winter season.  I would include the following as important:

• have you prepared yourself relationally?
• have you prepared yourself financially?
• have you prepared yourself spiritually?
• have you prepared yourself intellectually?
• have you prepared yourself emotionally?

You don't think a lot about life's winter season until you get there.  Then it can be either "oh, my gosh", or "oh thank goodness."  Often, it is a bit too late to change the situation in any viable way...it becomes an "it is what it is"...because the clock's run out situation for you.

Seasons are nice.  Life seasons are much more difficult.