Transitions
The early morning resonates with songs of birds as they return. Flowers and trees stretch forth their buds and leaves. The gardens burst with beautiful colors, infusing my soul with hope in this time of renewal. All around me, creation shouts, “Spring is coming!” However, this March morning I awoke to a light blanket of snow covering the trees and flowers, reminding me that sometimes the transition between seasons can be bumpy.
The tussle back and forth between weather and seasons is a clue to what I am going through. I, too, am in a period of transition. My job of being a full-time mom is slipping into the past as my son has gone off to college. If that was not enough, my husband is considering retiring this year. Like the clash between winter and spring, my heart is being pushed and pulled emotionally as I seek to understand and embrace my new chapter of life.
Just as the snow coats the flowers, my emotional conflict covers different parts of my life. I am in the process of reconsidering who I am. My role for the last twenty years or so has been shifting to something now unfamiliar. Just as the snowflakes drift down, my anxieties have the potential to blanket and impact my response to the transitions in my family. Like the flowers, I feel the cold nip of fear and concern as my relationships and responsibilities are being redefined.
Adjusting to the next stage of my life takes perspective, gratitude, and God’s wisdom. I can choose my mindset or what I focus on. I can be upset and undone by the uncertainty of the future, or I can be thankful that my son is stepping out into his dreams and passions. I can anguish over the change in our relationship with less time spent together. Or, I can rejoice that I will always be his mom, even as my role switches from supervisor to consultant. I can be swamped with worry over the unknown as my day-to-day interaction with my husband shifts as his time is freed up in retirement, or I can be grateful that we are together and still in love with each other. As I seek God’s opinion, I find that He tells me in Psalm 138:8: “The LORD will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me” (NLT).
The reality is that everyone endures transitions. During each one, there is beauty to be uncovered. The snow-drenched flowers offer a stunning contrast between the two seasons. The stark white mantel enhances the colors of the blooms but does not obscure them. Times of change and life transitions allow us to reevaluate where we are going. These new beginnings give us perspective and they are not the first, nor the last we will encounter. Growth always requires adjustment and acceptance on our part. Pondering each phase reveals things about us. Uncertainty can be used as an impetus to shed some tasks and pick up new adventures. We have hope that just as God has ordered the shifting equinoxes, He will also work out His plans for our lives. As winter gives way to spring and one season flows into another, we can look for God’s Hand and understand that change is a God-given opportunity to follow either fear or faith.