The Seasons of change
Seasons are changing…
Well, I took a 4-month hiatus to spend time with family on vacation and have family stay with me. My husband was on deployment during this time, and this also gave me time to reflect on our relationship and how much I missed him, and how important he is to our family dynamic. It was invigorating after the last year to be able to connect and travel again.
One thing I appreciated while spending time with others was how much I had missed that. We get so stuck in our routines, and we tend to forget how important human interaction is. Now some of you may say, but I interact all the time. Well, this may be true, but how often do you do it face to face?
I know I am guilty of interacting solely via text or social media. I didn’t use to be like this. I had a rotary phone and dial-up internet. I had to wait to talk to my friends until the next day at school. Hard to believe, right?! Not that I had those, just that they existed!
When I think about seasons of change, it dawned on me that as we grow in life and encounter different experiences, we are constantly evolving, learning, and achieving new goals and dreams. Evolving is fantastic! I can only hope I gain more knowledge than I already have.
Part of evolving is continued human interaction. We learn so much from other people – we don’t realize how much!
A perfect example of that would be my last vacation with my little one, who we would like to teach to swim. The entire vacation she spent sitting on the stairs of the Pool in a lifejacket, miserable!
So, my husband and I were dead set on putting her in private swim lessons. We figured this has to be the solution, and we have to get her comfortable around water and confident in the Pool.
On a whim this last week, I took her to the recreation pool in our neighborhood. Put on her lifejacket and decided I was in for an hour of stair sitting, but at least we’d try it out.
To my surprise, she wasn’t afraid! She could see other children her age in lifejackets splashing around in the Pool. Some were going underwater, swimming independently, laughing, and having a great time!
She spent the next hour following kids around, imitating what they were doing and experiencing new things. All without me, I sat on the stairs!
The Pool showed me just how important human contact and human awareness are. How much we depend on our peers for confidence and support in all that we do.
Climate changes…
Another way to look at human interaction and seasons of change is our current climate. Is this a situation where we need confidence and support? Of course! But are we following along with what we are told instead of what we know? How do we research? What is true? Lots of questions that each one of us must decide for ourselves and our own families.
Let’s bring this back to change and the importance of people. When grieving, we ebb and flow through a multitude of seasons, sometimes in one day! Having people that understand you and who can endure those seasons is very important.
It takes a lot to handle the seasons of someone in grief. We, the grievers, don’t want to be here, but we can’t decide when those seasons arrive. We can only try to balance how we encounter the seasons. And, as the seasons unfold, we will evolve with them. You will.
Don’t be afraid of the seasons…
Try to allow yourself to welcome these seasons, changes, and evolving moments that I have been talking about. It’s all about growth and the journey we are all on.
This October is year seven for me. I am not a grief expert; I don’t claim to be. But, what I want to do is provide you with a glimpse into what it entails to go through it. Maybe, you are going through this yourself, or perhaps you are supporting someone who is. I hope that you will find ways to ease through the seasons the best way that you can.
Remember, you are not alone. You are enough, and you are loved. Grief is complicated, but you are stronger than you know.
xo,
M
