Seasons of Life: Then and Now by Alan Anderson

 

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)


Writing prompt: Write about a season you are currently experiencing or have experienced. How did God meet your needs during this season? How did it affect your writing life?

 

Now and Then

The seasons of our lives, the blessings and crushing challenges all make up our stories.

A couple of weeks ago, while preparing this month’s blog post, I listened to music on YouTube. Lo-and-behold I found a recent video of a new song by The Beatles, the favourite band of my youth and even today. The song’s title is Now and Then. The video is a masterpiece of today’s technological wonders.

The Now and Then video calls me back to a season in life when my beloved parents were alive and well. This was a season when I was in the grips of my high school years and determining where I fit into the world. I now look back on my younger years and ask, where did the years, the seasons, go?

Seasons Change

Life has been heavy at times and strewn with the lashes of storms amid cloud-covered seasons. Seasons when the storms of life crushed my soul, such as my two-year period of ministry burnout and the years when my father, then my mother, entered heaven.

The year 2019 brought a season of clouds, a season that lasted for two years. As one who loves nature, it was as if the clouds were at war with the sun. This was like a dark season, where trees bowed in despair and dropped their leaves in a forever winter. I viewed life as a mountain, where brambles and thorns covered the road to heaven. Such a long road. The Enemy tried to convince me God had forsaken me and left me alone.

I thank the Lord that cloudy seasons give way to seasons of warmth, where the sun breaks through. What I must also remember is that God is in the storms and I am not alone.

A Season to Write

This reality of cloudy seasons, however, allowed me to keep on writing. This was no act of valor but an expression of faith.

My mind records the year 2015 as the year my writing took flight. Our beloved Tracy Krauss asked me to write for our InScribe blog, and I have been contributing to the blog ever since. Not long after this tremendous honour, my dear friend Glynis M. Belec gave me an opportunity to contribute to a book on grief. In 2017, the publisher released the book Good Grief People.

Now, in the autumn of my life, I work at laying aside the weight and clearing the brambles of my past. In this season, I pray to God I can publish at least a couple of writing projects before my pen dries up.

Dear readers, please allow me to suggest that one’s cloudy seasons help one nurture and confirm a call to write. One can release words into the world; with prayers they help others.

When the winter of life comes upon me, I will look forward to one day knocking on heaven’s door and being ushered into the presence of God. I will then know beyond all doubt that all the seasons of life worked together for good.

Concluding Thoughts

Dear friends, we may experience seasons of life with huggable embraces while others we wish we could run from. These times, both blessing and suffering, are all part of the life God has granted to us. May we all stay faithful and endure the times, the seasons, we experience as we live this life.

Our seasons of life all lead to heaven. When we reach the place where God is, we will know this life was worth all we had to endure. Come, Lord Jesus, come!

Alan lives in a small village called Deroche, British Columbia, with his wife, Terry, and their poodle, Charlie. He enjoys walking on the dike near his home with trees all around and where he finds inspiration to write. He occasionally writes articles for FellowScript Magazine and is a regular contributor to the InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship blog. Alan’s website and blog is https://scarredjoy.ca.

Seasons by Lorilee Guenter

 

Winter, spring, summer, fall. 

Which is your favourite season? I do not have an answer to that question. Each season has its draws and its drawbacks. But how can you like {season}? The chosen season to hate on is usually winter with its bone-chilling cold.

I like the crisp, clear days where the air sparkles with tiny, suspended drops of moisture. I enjoy brewing a mug of tea or hot chocolate, grabbing a blanket, and experiencing the quiet that cold seems to produce. I recognise the period of dormancy nature undergoes during winter. In time, unseen life will make its presence known.

I enjoy spring where each day brings something new as the white turns to muddy brown, then one by one plants push through until the whole palette is visible. Just as an artist places one brush stroke and then another, God wakes up the plants in order.

Summer shines with its long days of abundance. Some days it seems like you can see the plants grow as they stretch and bloom. I wander through my yard almost daily and delight in the changes.

Autumn brings crumbly leaves that I must step on to hear the satisfying crunch.  Trees take on vibrant hues as the flowers fade. A new coolness brings a reprieve from the heat. Vegetable soups simmer in place of summer salads.

While I have learned to enjoy all of the seasons, the lessons learned have not transferred to my writing life. Seasons of dormancy frustrate me. Intellectually I know this is a time of pondering. The ideas simmer beneath the surface waiting for the appropriate time to sprout. The seasons of abundance leave me scrambling as I try to bring my thoughts into order. I find myself longing for a slower pace. How quickly the frustration of the drought disappears. 

During summer, my writing slows. I am pulled outside by many activities. This year, I am trying to embrace the change. I trust the experiences will give rise to a new season of wordplay. It always does. And why wouldn't it? God has always been faithful not matter the season. He won't change now.

This summer I am attempting to embrace the season of rest in my creative life. I am choosing to let God refresh my soul. The writing continues at a slow pace. In between, I savour the tart juice of a raspberry just plucked from a plant. I pause to listen to the birdsong. I smile in gratitude at God's creation. Come fall I expect to pick up my pen with more frequency as God stirs the well of ideas and breathes life into new works. It is His way, for me at least.

I would like to look at my creative seasons as I do the created seasons. Each has a purpose. Each year I am able to reflect a little more and in doing so, I recognise God's hand in each moment. They are gifts from Him. In His hands, I flourish in a healthy, sustainable way.

Lorilee Guenter lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She likes to experiment with plants, paint and words. Curiosity and creativity lead to many unexpected endeavors.

Winter of Grief by Carol Harrison

 

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Ecclesiastes 3:1,4

It’s been a winter season of mourning and trying to figure out a new normal since my husband, Brian, passed away. It’s been almost two years and yet sometimes it feels like yesterday.

It’s been a season filled with much weeping, especially in the first year. I’ve been exhausted. The journey with him through the cancer was long and tiring for both of us.

At the beginning and occasionally even now, it’s felt disloyal to move forward, to embrace a time of laughing again. Yet remaining stuck in grief is not the answer. At times I feel I should have moved forward further than I have.

I felt lonely and still often do and even second guess decisions I make or need to make. My partner is no longer here to discuss them with. Yet he never wanted me to stop living life to the fullest I can. It just wasn’t his desire for me once he no longer lived his pain-filled life.

So how has God provided for me as I move through grief and this time of mourning? God gave me a wonderfully supportive family who are there for me, check up on me and just care. Then He provided encouraging friends. One in particular, who lives at a distance, texts often. Sometimes the chat contains daily life activities. Often he asks how I am doing and waits for an honest answer. There are no platitudes, just genuine care and concern. I also have a great Christian counsellor who listens well as I share this journey. In all, God has given me a wonderful support system which helps offset some of the loneliness.

Yet this season of grief and dealing with details of funeral and estate along with daily life has left me feeing uncreative. All I’ve written for over two years is the monthly blog post which has taken much work and has often been difficult. I ask when will creativity flow once more? When will discouragement fade? When will the time of laughter ring out?

One day at a time. Sometimes hour by hour I’ve been walking through this winter season of life, waiting for a time to fully embrace the new normal of life, including finding my way to more writing and crafting. It will come in time – God’s timing and not mine. I pray I hear the nudge when he presents it.

 

Carol Harrison lives in Saskatoon, SK. The winter photo above was taken from the train in Northern Ontario a few years ago on one of their memory making trips. Carol is in a season of waiting for the spring of creativity to bloom.




 

Seasons of Life and Writing by Sharon Heagy

Photo collage by Sharon Heagy

Seasons have existed since the creation of the earth when God created "lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years." (Genesis 1:14 NIV) In Canada, we have four very distinct seasons which is one of the reasons I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. There is a gradual awakening in the Spring, when plants and animals stretch and yawn and come to life again. Summer brings continued growth of vegetation and creatures alike until the daylight hours begin to dwindle. As winter approaches, autumn leaves give a farewell party and don their most brilliant colours in a final dance. Some leap from the tree and get caught in tiny, joyful whirlwinds, while others float gracefully yet reluctantly to the ground. Animals begin to look for cozy dens to curl up in during hibernation and the skies are filled with the sound of south bound birds honking like they're caught in a traffic jam. The cold frosty winters force plants to shrink once again beneath the surface of the soil. Some beasts slumber and some grow thick winter hair. Winter is a season of rest and rejuvenation and the only energy expended is to keep warm.

Human beings have seasons of life, and seasons within those seasons. Our first season is defined by age. Baby, toddler, youth, tween, teen, young adult, adult, old adult, really old adult and geezer. The latter four are defined from the perspective of those under thirty years of age. We have seasons to be educated, earn a living, have children, have grandchildren. Seasons of health and happiness, seasons of sickness and despair. Seasons of loss. Seasons when we wish we could, like the animals, hide in hibernation until the world is set right again but we know this won't happen this side of heaven. We learn to adapt and morph and change and the seasons pass.

The writing life has seasons too. There is a time when everything is fresh and new, exhilarating and exciting! We are beginning our journey and absorb all we can like an unsaturated sponge. The structure may be a little wobbly but strong foundations are being formed.

As we gain a little knowledge we become intermediate writers. We're still intimidated and hesitant to share our work with others but the foundation has become firm and the structure needs less help. We learn about the art of editing and the thrill of turning a phrase just so or finding the word that means precisely what we are trying to express. Added to the initial excitement of the beginner, the intermediate writer develops a deeper affection for the craft.

What follows the intermediate writer is a writer of experience. One willing to share freely, knowing God has something to say through them in a way only they can say it. They walk in obedience, seeking Him for inspiration. Everything they work on is girded with His foundation and built brick upon brick like a Lego castle, reaching beyond anything they have ever done. They know they will get past any writer's block or interference. These writers are willing to do the work, the daily grind, stretching themselves and their skills towards perfection. Though skill and talent exude through their pores, they know there is always more to learn. Writing is such an integral part of life they cannot give it up any more than they could stop breathing. It is a sanctuary, a sacred endeavour. Affection turns to adoration.

Part of the challenge of this month’s prompt was to examine the season we are currently undergoing. When I look at my own writing life, I would consider myself a little bit of a beginner who is well into the intermediate season and one who may someday become one of the experienced. I have the privilege of knowing some accomplished writers and I listen to their words and encouragement with hope. They are amazing people who mentor and instruct others without even knowing. You probably know some of them too. Many are within the InScribe family. Writing is seldom a totally solitary endeavour. We need each other. As the stretching and shaping of my writing life continues, I think I will stick around and stick to it until God calls me to another level beyond myself. I hope you do too. It only gets better and richer and there are many seasons yet to come.

Sharon Heagy writes from the small but vibrant town of Rockglen, Saskatchewan which is nestled in the valley near the Burning Hills. She writes to inspire and give hope with a chuckle or two along the way.