Ep 185 Seasons of Life

Join us as we reflect on the cyclical nature of life and the wisdom our seasons offer us.

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Transcript

Seasons of Life

Hello. It's 

[00:00:02] Chris: good to be with you today. We are talking about seasons of life and this is something that we see all around us in our natural world. We are designed for change and flow. And so the sun rises and it sets every day. The moon has a lunar cycle. Bears have times of hibernation.

Trees blossom, then the leaves fall. And the same is true in our spiritual lives as well. And so we wanted to take some time to unpack the idea of seasons and how it relates to our contemplative lives. 

[00:00:38] Christina: Yeah, this is actually one of my favorite topics. I absolutely love talking about seasons. I remember in high school drawn to this passage, it's a Hebrew poem from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament.

And it talks about the different seasons and was just drawn to that as a high school student and thinking about seemingly opposite seasons. It's poetic too. So it uses strong language that Cause me to have to stretch my thinking of what does this mean in not a literal sense, but in a figurative sense.

And I have different reflection guides and just love thinking about seasons. And, I think one thing for me that comes up when we talk about this topic is the fact that we don't necessarily get to choose our seasons, right? I don't choose for it to be autumn. It's just autumn. As life unfolds, I think we have to learn to recognize the seasons and what does it look like to recognize that there are some seasons that are ordained for us and we just have to accept and lean into as part of our lives as it unfolds.

And so even though I don't often have the choice to determine my seasons, I do think we do have some choice and I can have some autonomy over aspects of my seasons, but I think there's other aspects of seasons that. And so how can I embrace and see beauty regardless of the season that's at hand?

And I think that's the first thing that comes up for me is that we don't necessarily get to always choose all of our seasons and that's okay. 

[00:01:51] Chris: Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I was just talking with a friend the other day and we were, Talking about this book that we both read, which is a book by Richard Rohr called Adam's Return, and there's this concept in the book that your life is being done to you, right?

Your life is not your own. Your life is being done to you. And it's at war with this idea of, Not being in control. And so a lot of times we don't have control of our circumstance or our seasons. We do have some ability to choose what we do even though we're not in control, but our life is being done to us.

So I really appreciate you saying that. I think one of the things that comes to mind for me is the, there's this idea that there's seasons have a length and they vary some seasons last for days. Others for months and still others for years and some examples include undergrad season or the season of walking through an illness or obstacles in life tax season.

The notion of their seasons vary in their lengths. 

[00:02:57] Christina: Yeah, I think that's really helpful. Especially in the more challenging seasons to recognize this too shall pass. This isn't going to be the rest of our lives. And somehow I think having that perspective can help. And even on the flip side of knowing okay, we'll just use summer as an example.

Summer season doesn't last forever. And so you soak up and enjoy the swimming and the grilling and all of that kind of stuff, knowing that. It's contained the length is what it is. And so I think that there can be invitation for greater appreciation when we recognize that the length of seasons vary.

So I think that's an important aspect of seasons.

I think another piece of this idea of seasons for me is that multiple seasons are taking place at the same time in our lives. And so we aren't just like one season human beings. So for example, one area of my life can feel. Really maybe challenging dark like a winter and another area of my life can feel vibrant like summer.

And I think that's important in contemplative living to recognize that our lives are complexed, they're nuanced, and just because one thing is going You know maybe a way that we don't want it to go and we're not in control of that season. And we're trying to make the best of the circumstances that are happening in that moment.

Other aspects where we feel like, gosh, I have a ton of autonomy here and I get a lot of choice and I can shape this aspect of my season and cooperate in different ways. And so I find that again, to be really helpful. And I had mentioned earlier that I like to do these season reflections and I have this wheel kind of life with God in these multiple areas of my life that I typically every quarter reflect on and invite kind of some gratitude for what is, and then invitation for ways that I hope to engage in this aspect of this particular area of life.

And gosh, that just rings true over and over again, that Again, sometimes there is a theme or some flow that happens between these different areas, but more often than not, there are some opposites that are also at play simultaneously and just learning to lean into the wisdom and the opportunities there.

[00:04:56] Chris: Yeah. I think as you say that, we can be in different seasons at the same time. I think one of the things that comes to mind is I was helping my oldest child build a guitar and we have a neighbor that has a wonderful barn and we were using some of his tools that he has in his barn. It was a big workspace.

But first he was taking us into his basement and of his house and showing us some tools there. And he had this closet. And this is like towards the end of winter, and there were these huge lights that were starting these Seeds growing. And I thought, Oh my gosh, this guy is got spring going on in winter.

And I think that, we can have several things going on in our life at the same time. And so I really appreciate you, you naming that. 

[00:05:47] Christina: Yeah. And I think just to build off of that too, I like that because again, and there's a balance, that some things are being done unto us like you said, and also we do have free will and choice and whatnot.

And so I love that. It's winter and yet he's having spring in his basement. And I think so often we can get swept up and just Oh, I'm just whatever. And we clump it into all of life as opposed to, Yes, this aspect of my life is this. And yet there's all these other things where I can create and stir and move and invite another season to be present simultaneously.

So I think that's a great story that you're sharing.

[00:06:22] Chris: I think another idea about seasons is this notion of seasons repeat, and I think our seasons build off of one another, and we often will face a similar season in life that repeats many years later. And so as we reflect on similar seasons, we may recognize our own growth from a previous time in life.

And perhaps we're faced with the stress and anxiety in our younger years when dealing with a challenging co worker. And in our current season, we recognize a greater sense of patience as we are in a challenging work environment. 

[00:06:57] Christina: Yeah, I think that's important. And yeah, again, just, when we opened you, you mentioned different aspects of nature that repeat itself over and over again, right?

The lunar cycle repeats every month, the sun rises and sets every day, every winter, the bears hibernate, right? So there is something to pattern and repetition and rhythm that is, again, something that we're designed for. And so it makes sense that these inner things or these character issues or aspects of spirituality, of course, are also going to repeat.

It's not like we one time have this thing that we walk through and then, okay, we've checked that box and we're done. Again, there's, I think that invitation and if we are paying attention not only Being aware of the season, but that recognition of I am a different person as I'm facing this particular thing.

I am different today than I was last year or last week when this particular thing came up and to approach ourselves as I'm not the same person that I was my, even. Kind of the cells in our body are constantly changing. Like we're constantly changing. And so when we repeat that again, it's with a fresh new lens, which I think can be so rewarding.

And and again, to your point of noticing, wow, like I've grown a lot and look how far I've come as this repeated season is entering in. And here's my growth edge now that I can lean into. 

[00:08:16] Chris: Yeah. And I think one of the the images that comes to mind for me is a tree. I don't know if anyone has seen a tree that's, it's lived its life and, it's cut down.

It has rings and you can look at a tree's rings and determine like it had a very harsh winter or it had a dry summer, like you can look at it. I think, we experienced these repeat seasons because. We're invited to go deeper, like it's a deeper growth that's happening. So I think seasons bring the deeper growth that is necessary, but also there's the flourishing seasons, right?

Where we're, where we bloom and our fruit is. Eaten by many people. But then we also return back to that winter season where that, that deep growth is happening. So yeah. 

[00:09:11] Christina: And I think that's why I find it really important in my own life to be in multi generational relationships, because I think it's important that we're learning from one another.

We're learning from those who have had a lot of the rings, a lot, they've gone around, quite a bit and had lots of summers in their lives and springs and winters and falls and to learn from them. And then also younger people that are fresher and newer, and not always is the wisdom. Oh, let me share my wisdom that I've experienced from when I was that age, but gosh, you have such a fresh.

Fresh thing to offer me in where I'm at as well. And because that season is going to repeat for me too, and in whatever various ways, and I think to potency, I think sometimes the potency of the season might be different, but the repetition nonetheless happens.

[00:09:54] Chris: Hold on, Christina. The reason.

Yes. I appreciate you bringing that forward. And I think one of the things that. Comes to mind is that, you're talking about Ecclesiastes and seasons and Ecclesiastes 311 says, yeah, God made, God has made everything beautiful for its own time, but even people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

And so I leave us with that idea of the work that's going on underneath. And somehow somebody sees the scope of it all and, and we're leaning into that faith and that knowledge.

podcast where we talk about.

[00:10:38] Christina: So now is the part of the podcast where we talk about what we are into. What are we into? 

I am into the movie Inside Out 2. We recently went to see this and I loved Inside Out the first movie. I thought it was just so profound and was really looking forward to seeing the second one. We re watched the first one recently and it did not disappoint.

I feel like we now have Two teenagers and an eight year old and hearing kind of their responses around the movie was really helpful. And I find myself in a couple of different coaching sessions I've had this week referring to that movie things that have come up for people and somehow just having an animation and some different visuals and language for some of what was experienced in that movie.

I've been able to draw fun from in a very helpful way. So I am into Inside And I will admit we were one of those families who Dressed accordingly. And so each of us picked a different color and we were a different emotion, which was really fun. I remember our eight year old was one color. And then later on that evening, we had some various emotions happening in our home and asked if he should change outfits to be the other color, which I thought was cute.

So anyway, I am into the movie inside out too.

I have been into the electric guitar in a way that I haven't been into for a long time. I was recently going through some posters and pictures of Times whenever I was in a band. And so I have this picture that I hung on my desk and it caused me to want to play some of the songs that I used to play when I was in this band.

[00:12:13] Chris: And this particular time I we happen to be in Germany and I have this, poster of us right above my desk and I was going back to some songs and so it's, I've been on an electric guitar kick. I've got my pedals that are right next to me. And so I've just been having a lot of fun playing electric guitar to some oldies, but also creating some really new ambient sounds and taking my kids down memory lane.

They're asking questions about. What's been going, what did I do back in this time? And so getting to tell stories of when their dad was in a rock and roll band has been a lot of fun. So I have been into the electric guitar and old stories from my time in a rock and roll brand. Thank you so much for joining us.

It was so good to be with you. See you next time.