Seasons

I am reminded of the change in seasons when I walk around Lake Elkhorn. There are several things that I notice on my walk when the season changes:

1. I react to the fresh greenery. My throat itches.

2. I see a lot of people walking, I see people either sleeping, reading, holding a picnic or simply enjoying the weather on their blankets. and simply enjoying the weather or facing a picnic.

3. I see people riding their bikes and some others fishing.

4. One important noticeable change is the water geese on the water and their mess on the trail.

The change in the seasons brings about something familiar or something different in a new way. I miss it when the geese are gone. But I am also thankful that I don’t have to tiptoe along the trail to avoid the mess they leave behind. 

Qoheleth reminds us that there is a time and a season for everything under heaven:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace

A time to be born and a time to die. A time to sow and a time to reap. A time for the geese to appear, and a time for them to emigrate to another place. A change in the seasons simply reminds us to do something different or to prepare for the next season. No one season invites us to do the exact same thing we did the previous season. 

I once heard that there are four seasons in a year and four seasons in life. Spring is when opportunity shows up; plant everything you can. That is to say, life offers us the opportunity to make the best of every situation and seize the moment, as some would say.

Summer is the test; bugs, heat, weeds, keep going, do not abandon the crop in the summer. That is to say, each of us will have to face one test or another. We can never go through life without a test. The question then isn’t if the test will come but when.

Autumn comes, and you harvest; you reap what you planted and protected. That is to say, for every action, there is a reaction. Whatever decision we take has some kind of consequence. Each of us will reap what we sow, St. Paul reminds us in Galatians. It isn’t per se, but we most certainly cannot reap what we didn’t sow or protect. We cannot benefit from doing nothing.

Winter follows, but use it to plan for the next spring. There shouldn’t be a time when we are not planning for the future. Granted that we do not know what the future might look like or what tomorrow might bring to us, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan. Like the motto of the Scouts says, “Be prepared.” We shouldn’t be in a position where we don’t plan.

Every season of our lives involves planning, making choices, dealing with the consequences of those choices, and going through difficult times. But I believe that some level of preparation or planning minimizes the impact of tribulations and tests that might come our way.

This time of year is the season of graduations. I give grateful thanks to God for all those who graduated. I offer special thanks to our parishioners who graduated: Ben Atkins, Ekunda Wonodi, Rumundaka Wonodi, Violet Smith, Emmanuel Olajide, Luke Aribiah, Shereen Benka-Coker, Marileigh Chappell, Monica Henia, and Javier Hernandez.

If you attended a graduation ceremony, you would have heard speeches that encapsulated some or all four seasons of our lives. The one that struck me the most was by Ray Dalia at Long Island University.

This is part of what he said:

“Pain + Reflection = Progress.”

His point was that we will experience some pain in our lives-that’s more like the summer months when we are tested with trials and tribulations, the months when we deal with bugs, heat, weeds, and bugs.

But whatever the pain is, it will yield no benefit if we do not reflect on it. A sober reflection on our summer months is critically important if we are to make progress in life. 

There are times when I wish life were lived on a linear plane, or that we had one season. But that is not the case. My friends and I used to joke in high school that life is full of synclines and anticlines. It is imperative, therefore, not to waste any season, whether you are on top or at the bottom.

Each one of them, be it autumn, winter, spring, or summer, has a unique purpose in our lives. Each one of them builds us toward something unimaginable. Each season holds the promise that we can be a lot more than we are, which is why the boundaries of what we can be are unimaginable.  

As we begin our summer months, may we be reminded that, as unpredictable as the seasons of our lives may be, we must always look to work with those seasons and not against them.

Working with our seasons would mean prayerfully reflecting on each. In my mind, that is one of the incredible ways available to us if we are to make progress in our lives.

Wishing you blessed Seasons,

Manny+