The Changing of the Seasons

I don't know why, but for some reason, when Fall comes, it always make me feel nostalgic. Don't misunderstand, Fall is my favorite season of the year, with it's earthy tones and colors, but somehow it leads me to wander back through the years and look at the seasons of my life.

I remember quite well being adopted as a toddler. It was like the second Spring of my life - figuratively speaking. It was a rebirth for me, like the rebirth you see in an earthly Spring, when all the annual plants once again make their way up through the soil made hard by winter snows and freezes. In some ways, I too, had already been through the hard times of winter, and now I was able to look at the world through new eyes. It was definitely a season of rebirth for me as I took in all the joy and happiness of a new home.

It seems like it wasn't long before I passed into the summer of my years with all the "busyness" and eagerness of youth, followed by the teen years with their whirlwhind of activities and changes. Those years were followed by the transition into adulthood and all the responsibilities that come with it. We graduate from high school and maybe college, and eventually move into the adjustments of careers and marriage and parenthood.

It seems like all too quickly we find ourselves settled into the Fall of our lives. Our children have reached adulthood and are settling into lives of their own - graduation, career, marriage, children . . . Oh wait - children?! That translates into a new and wonderful transition for us! Oh, the joys of being a grandparent! One of life's best and most enjoyable seasons! We have reached a maturity that allows us to be a softer and gentler, yet wiser, role model. Our experiences through the seasons of our life have created in us an ability to handle life with more patience and understanding, and with a softer touch. These are also the years when we look toward retirement and a very real "slowing down" in life. Life is more relaxed in the Fall of our lives, and I think once again, like children, we learn to appreciate the little things in life more.

Ah, but next comes the winter of our lives - the later years when we start to realize more fully our own mortality. It's a time when we look back over our lives and often wonder about what we did and how we did it. Did I do it right? Would I do it differently now? Well, unfortunately, life is not a dress rehearsal. Each season is a one-time transition. If we had it to do over again, would we do it differently? I don't think so. I believe that most of us give it our best the first time around. We may have been good at everything we did, or maybe we weren't so good at anything; but we gave it our best, with whatever tools we had been given through life.

Whatever season of life you are passing through, enjoy it to the fullest, because each transition only comes once!