Seasons - Accepting and Appreciating Change

Do you think the moon likes himself more when he's full or crescent? Do you think he's insecure about how Earth will perceive him? Do you think the Earth prefers being speckled in Spring color, or is she more of a Winter-type - confident while covered in snow?

Maybe the moon simply knows his job is to light the sky and move the tides; he is the inspiration of hope and poetry and songs and brings courage where there is fear - his phases are necessary. Maybe the Earth loves all her seasons - knowing she allows space for the creatures who live on her surface to fall into their own needed cycles.

Our bodies move like the earth and outer space, into and out of cycles - they grow, make space, change, adapt, age, wither.

I've had two pregnancies in two years. The past twenty-four months has been a cycle of growing, birthing, healing, feeding, shrinking, and growing again. My legs carry a little more, and there is a slight swell in my face. Parts of me droop, the bags under my eyes glow with a dark halo - I know the newborn that I feed through all hours of the night would consider me an angel. There are soft pink crooked lines rounding the curves of my thighs and stomach, like routes on a map telling of the places I’ve been, the things I’ve seen. I trace them in the mornings with my fingers, sometimes with appreciation, sometimes with apprehension. When my body made space for the new tenants it would house, the remodel has seemed slightly permanent. Parts of me will never be the same, others will go back to the way they were, some parts will be stronger. I feel uneasy about this revamp sometimes and how my body has changed in ways I don’t remember saying yes to. But if there is anything that pregnancy and motherhood has taught me about life, it’s how sacred it is that my body was created for so much more than beauty and admiration. That it’s not about how we carry but what we carry. We have the ability to carry love, to carry kindness, to carry peace and passion and life itself. As Paul said so long ago, our body is a temple in which the very Spirit of God lives (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

How we carry is not always in our control and is temporary, but what we carry has the ability to give life and change lives. Our hands prepare home cooked meals. The nook between your neck and shoulder is the perfect place for a loved one’s tired head. Our legs move us to new places. Our eyes allow us to indulge in the natural world around us - color, light, and movement. Our minds are homes for dreams and fantasies and intelligence.

There are so many seasons we walk through in life, and there are gifts and hardships in each one. Like a child who wakes up with frost on their window from the first snow of the season, you can stand in wonder at what your body is capable of. Like middle schoolers who run out of the classroom doors for the last time on an early June day, you can be excited for what adventure your body holds and be proud of the work it’s put in this year.

Your body is a space to be cultivated with care and appreciated in all it’s beauty and resilience; neglecting your body is neglecting life itself. Believing lies about your body is believing a lie about your very existence. We may not be in control of what is gained or lost, but there is a gift that comes with each physical hardship – whether as small as a wrinkle or big as illness. Each season brings us new perspective, and a new sense of strength.

There are pros and cons, beauty and adversity, good reminders and difficult realities within each season. Summer may have the warmth but fall has the fullness of color. Spring reminds us of growth and rebirth and newness. Winter reminds us how to rest and celebrate. Summer is busy and sweaty, and Fall puts us back on a schedule where darkness comes earlier than we would like. Winter is cold, and spring is slow. So with each change we experience, let us enter it appreciating what we have made it through and what we are capable of. With gratitude of the temporary, with a remembrance of how we are not in control, with admiration of what our bodies can hold and are capable of.

Here are some questions to consider about this season of your own life:

What season would you say your body is in right now?

What lies do you need to let go of in regards to your body?

In what ways are you proud of yourself?