Seasons

It used to be that I couldn’t wait for Winter to arrive.  Winter brings skiing, sledding, building snowmen, or just a great excuse to sit by the fireplace and read a book.  Winter covers everything in white, and seems to wipe the slate clean for another fresh start.

But then, I got into Mountain Biking, and Winter meant an end to that activity for the year.  Suddenly, I was more in love with summer.  Now, as I tend my recently planted garden, I find myself enjoying the newness of Spring.  I can’t help but anticipate and look forward to Fall a little bit though, when we can really enjoy the fruits of our labors in the garden.  And each of these activities is changed by sharing it with my children.  Gardening is no longer just a chore, but something that the kids love to help out with, making it much more exciting.  I still love a good bike ride, but that’s something the kids can’t participate in yet, and so without diminishing the experience, it does mean making a choice to leave the family behind for a short time, and going out to torture my body on my own.

Riding with a friend last weekend.

In general, I’ve decided I just like the idea of seasons.  They provide an opportunity to continually renew my focus, change the outlook, and switch up the pace.  Summers in Montana are notoriously short, but offer a great many opportunities.  As a result, people tend to “go” every possible minute.  It’s a fun time, and can create some great memories, but when Winter arrives it seems like we have to re-introduce ourselves to friends and neighbors. 

But seasons are something we not only experience on an annual weather cycle, but throughout our lives.  Sometimes major points mark a transition; like graduation, getting married, or having kids.  These transitions to new seasons of life can be both scary and exciting, but clearly change our life as we know it.  Alternately, we may have times of slow gradual change that we don’t even realize are occurring.  That “How did I get here?” feeling is one that too often means a negative slide.  I stepped on the scale at the beginning of the year, and trust me…  I hadn’t planned to weight that much!  But that kicked off a much more intentional season of discipline that has resulted in me losing over 15 pounds this year. 

Spring means branding in Montana. With Dan Collins in 2004.

But as much as I like seasons, I’m still struggling with this season of waiting.  We’ve made the decision to become missionaries and move to Bolivia for three years, yet here we sit.  We’ve decided what school we will place Kellton in upon arrival in Cochabamba, yet we’re also preparing for him to start Kindergarten in Helena this fall.  We’re thinking about how to pack up and move, yet we’re planting and tending a garden right here in Helena.  It sometimes feels like we’re living dual lives and I don’t know which one takes precedence.  But all we can do is continue to manage our day-to-day lives while doing everything we can to hasten and prepare for our ultimate departure.

And the irony of this coming new season of our lives…  We’re moving to the “City of Eternal Spring,” where there isn’t much in the way of seasons.  But if we can leave in December, as we are currently planning, the change from a Christmas in winter, to a Christmas in summer will be an abrupt season change indeed.

November 2011 - Not so wintry in Bolivia.