The Mark Of A Season

SUN., OCT. 25, 1998, 5:37 AM (CST)
FARM, STUDY

You were awakened early, by the clock, but clocks were set back an hour last night to what is the actual sun time (whatever that is… remember I just don’t function in a time orientation). Now it shall be lighter in the early morning and darker in the early evening. For you that shall present some advantages and some disadvantages. But you can say this about each season of the year.

Yes, each season (and you do like them all) has its pleasant and unpleasant characteristics. And I shall show you how they relate to your life… and the lives of those who have lived at least this long (the average for men in your culture).

This is the season called both Fall and Autumn. Here it can be a beautiful season, for the leaves on many trees are changing from green to yellow, gold, and red. Then these leaves shall fall, and the “curtain” that now surrounds this old Farmhouse shall give way to bare limbs, and the ground shall be covered with these colorful leaves. It is the season to light the stoves and have a fire in the fireplace of an evening. Thus it also is a season for cutting wood. Small limbs on the ground now become valuable for their capacity to get a fire going or rejuvenate one that has burned too low. It is a season to clean up garden plots… with some sorrow that you were remiss in planting and replanting… but with hope for another Spring opportunity.

Yet your life is not one that brings many laments. With your life you have “had a good garden”. However, it still is time to “take stock” of what you have done and not done, in early readiness for another season of planting. For there will come a “Spring season”, and your eternal spirit will be reborn in some way and setting, and another season shall commence. But now it is still Autumn.

The sweater was comfortable yesterday, as is the electric blanket (even at 2). The sun can still feel warm, but the air is cool. Likewise, your body still has strengths and functionality, but also developing imperfections that shall bring losses without regaining. Your mind is not as quick and agile as it once was, and you do forget more frequently. The beautiful leaves cannot stay on the trees. Most of them must fall. (a reason for the name – Fall).

The life you are experiencing now (and have experienced for over 72 years) is like unto a single year of four seasons. The Spring was you in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. The Summer was you as an educated man, an educator in several settings (all pleasant and rewarding), a husband and father (even grandfather), a contributing church member, and a human with a special relationship with Me, Holy Spirit. The Fall is the “now” season, with Emeritus status (bringing some continuing relationship with the University and its students), slowed capacities, and a time to reflect upon your Spring and Summer, now past.

As Winter comes, as a final season there is always the wonder – will it be a hard one? Will your winter season be short and mild or long and hard? Will your losses bring frustrations, like unto frozen pipes and cars that won’t start?

Yet you know that beyond the Winter, however it is, comes a Spring, with new life of all sorts. And you also know that your life shall continue, outside of time and seasons, but that, “when it is time”, your spirit shall experience a new Spring and come forth in some new form, just right for your spirit’s continuing growth toward maturity. So while time is obviously linear it also is circular. Your life is also obviously linear (you shall never be 70 again… or 50 or 20), but it, too, is circular… until it has developed from individuality back into unity with Me, Holy Spirit. And then, from Me, come “new” spirits, as the creative process continues.