In the Fall Season

I’m thinking that I must be getting older when I choose a title such as I did for this blog.
Who else would talk about seasons?
A long time ago I heard a song by Steve and Anni Chapman that talks about the stages of our life in seasons. I was thinking that, if a good long life of 80 years is divided into seasons,
I should be in the Fall season at this time. Wow!


The good thing is that Fall is very beautiful! I love the colors, the fresh air, the anticipation of special celebrations and pulling those yummy pies out of the oven.

In a similar way, my life is full of the colors of the changes
that have transpired in this season of my life.
Just as Fall is a time of new beginnings,
 there have been moves out of the house, as well as abroad,
 bringing about big changes!
In the last 8 years, we have added three in-law kids and

five grandkids to our family!
(One can’t deny that this adds lots of color!)
I also can’t forget to mention that Fall has always been a time to go back
and learn more and I seem to remember, even as a child,
the anticipation of moving upto a higher grade level
with a mixture of pride and fear!
This makes me feel quite at home right about now!
Just getting set up to do these posts, has been a learning curve for me.
Yes, it’s an exciting time of change,
learning and realizing that there is much to look forward to.

Fall is also a time to feel like we can, in some ways, rest and enjoy the harvest,
 the fruit of our labor.
As I look at my life in this manner, I can say that I am learning to embrace the changes this season brings, because I see that only through these changes
will I see the beauty of further growth.

FOR EVERYTHING A SEASON

For quite some time now I have thought about whether or not to start a blog. Although I have journaled for years, doing so in a public fashion is a bit daunting . The one big question I have for myself is “why would I not just keep it to a personal diary?”

It seems to me that writing for “other eyes” will, in some ways, keep me more focused and accountable. I may look at circumstances from a different view and find reasons to write about them. I am not a great writer, often lacking the exact words I want to say, but I hope to improve with practice. My desire is that through my journaling I will be able to better see the hand of God in my life as a whole and in the every day. In seeing the brevity in the stages of our life, I wish to focus on appreciating the moments.

So here I go . . . at the stage of my life where I’m reflecting on past opportunities and hope for the future. My husband and I are empty nesters again . . . I say again, because that’s how we started. When we were dating, we wrote letters to each other weekly for two years! (snail mail letters – I feel very old)

Recently I spent an afternoon reading through these mushy love letters, most of which were promptly destroyed. When my husband honey came home from work that day, I was by the stove cooking. As he came in, I said, “Do you realize that we are living our dream come true?” He obviously needed some clarification. I said, “Well, I’m cooking for you and we are sleeping together.” Bluntly spoken, those were our dreams in our dating days, which I'd been immersed into for an afternoon!
At this time I feel like the whole next stage of raising kids has been a whirlwind that just passed us by and here we are . . . back to where we started.

Seasons have come and gone, and God willing, more will come, to which I look forward. I have a peace and assurance from past experiences that God will continue to be our refuge and strength. He truly has given me the desires of my heart, not necessarily how I would have pictured, sometimes through hard things, but He who made me and has a purpose for my life, somehow does know best.