I know I have mentioned it before but this summer has been unprecedentedly hot and dry. Unfortunately if the weather forecasters are correct our triple digit days are slated to go until October. This news makes my heart sink to the floor because I am running out patience with scorching forecasts. I want to pull out my phone, flip to my weather ap and see a ten day forecast with no triple digits in sight. Really I would like something in the 60's but I will settle for mid 90's at this point. So I have decided to spite the weather and ignore it as much as possible. Along these lines I have spent the late morning hauling out my fall decor and scattering it around the house.
Fall is by far my favorite season. Pumpkins, apples, cider? Love it love it love it. So I got started early this year and my bar now has a trio of harvesty candles and an apple basket, the light fixture in my dining "nook" is wreathed in leaves and I am plotting something epic for the mantle. This morning I made pumpkin oatmeal and had cinnamon spiced coffee. I am declaring that in my house, it is fall because I need it be fall now regardless of the weather outside.
I am actually a fan of the phrase "fake it until you make it" for some situations in life. I don't mean that I encourage pretending, on the contrary I think I have a pretty good track record of authenticity. However, sometimes when you are thirsty and of a change of you have to do something drastic. Maybe you need to start living like the next season has arrived, even though it is still around the bend. So today I am going to put a big pumpkin out as a reminder that things won't always be this dry. For me, I need to remember that I won't always live in toddler land, my nights won't always be sleepless and I won't always be crunching cheerios when I walk to the kitchen. Life has seasons, and this one is good albeit difficult.
It can be confusing to figure out when you need to live the hard season that you are in and when you need to change it up. When I was in the season of heavy grieving for my parents it would have been damaging for me if I hadn't lived in the darkness of it for a while. However, even in that season I did need to decorate with hope and reminders that a new season would come to my life. Sometimes we are called to bring change to our season and sometimes we need to decorate our lives with visual reminders that it isn't forever, for me right now this is a pumpkin. In fact I am coining the phrase "big metaphorical pumpkins of hope. It's so concise I am sure it will catch on.
No matter what your season I promise you there is something to love about it, even if only in hindsight. Even in my darkest seasons I have sweet memories of being surrounded with prayer and love from my closest friends and family. You may be in one of three places as you read these words. Perhaps today you need to pour a big glass or mug of your favorite liquid delight, whether that's coffee, wine, etc, and sip as you breathe prayers of thanks for your season. Maybe today finds you somewhere terribly difficult and you need to pray for some big metaphorical pumpkins of hope to come along and remind you of God's faithfulness in cycling our seasons. Or maybe you need to decorate your life for the next season as you pray for the strength to do the work needed to change your forecast. All three of these types of seasons find their way into our lives.
Look for a pumpkin of hope as you go through your day, and if you find it put it somewhere obvious to remind yourself that seasons change, and they are all at least a little sweet no matter the circumstances.
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