A Season for Everything?

Okay, this has been an odd week.  I've found myself looking up and asking "What are You doing?" more than once.  I fundamentally believe that there really is a Season for Everything:

Ecclesiastes 3

¹ There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
² a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and
a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

... seems they forgot just one season:  a time for allergies...  :(  kidding.

I know I always quote and remember the good stuff like 'laugh, dance, mend, heal, embrace;' but I think we like to ignore the others:  'a time to tear down... time to refrain... give up, search, mourn, weep, die, war.'  We don't like those.  They're not uplifting.  Or are they?

In our quest for our DREAMS, we often get derailed.  THAT is life.  Life will interrupt.  It will toss curve balls with bowling balls instead of baseballs and swallow you in pot holes the size of garbage trucks at times ~ but ~ there's actually some GOOD news here...  those 'down' times are only a season!

- Only a Season -

I don't know about you, but when I'm getting hit with things I don't particularly like, agree with, or want to have happen - I'm usually not too happy about it.  If a seemingly negative cascade of events persists, which they are apt to do at times (because where's the fun in having only ONE thing go wrong? right?) - I tend to get proportionally annoyed based on the number of things, their complexity, and potential impact to my world.

so how do you deal?

I feel like I'm relatively well equipped to deal with most anything provided there is an END - that the tunnel really does have a light; and the closing credits are coming soon.  What drives me absolutely batty is when there appears to be NO END IN SIGHT for my distress.  That's the thing.  The Unknown, Unending burden that sometimes is the status quo.  Nobody likes the status quo when you're not where you want to be, right?  And even when we have nearly everything we could want, we still don't linger in status quo-land for long... so imagine being stuck in that crater-sized pothole staring up.  Hmmm.

Sidebar:  Funny thing about being down in the hole, when we're there, we almost ALWAYS look UP!  Hmmm - okay anyway:

Your mind starts whirring -- gears kick in -- developing the scheme to climb out -- which in my world lately, seems to land me in an even deeper hole than the one I just pulled myself out of...

    ...finger tapping starts as my eyebrow goes up in irritation.

The point is that SOMEtimes, when you're in the hole, it helps to remember that where you are and what you may be going through may just be your S E A S O N of _____________.  Could be a season of separation?  Maybe a season of mourning...?  Maybe a season of scattering...?  Fill in your own blank.


So why is this good?
It's good because you can at least begin to recognize that it IS only a season and that means it WILL have an END.  So EXPECT the end...  You might be getting hit with setbacks, or things you don't understand, or even things that hurt you -- but those will not last forever. 

This is why Writing down your Dreams is so so very important!  When you're in the "Time to tear down" season for example, the things you've written down will remind you that you'll get to BUILD soon!  It's NEXT in fact...  What you write, you can continue to speak out loud when you're down or discouraged to ENCOURAGE yourself!  To help you keep going...

And for me - THAT is the key.  To do whatever I can to just keep going.  Eventually, I will get through.  Eventually, the sun will rise.  Eventually, I will have my dream!  Just BELIEVE and don't get sidetracked by the setbacks no matter how big your pothole seems to be or how much damage falling into it may have done.  Even when you're in the season you don't want to be in -- continue to make choices that get you CLOSER to your dream! your vision!

Your TIME really is coming!  ;)

     THINK.       WRITE.       BELIEVE.       ACT.