living with the seasons | no. 25

The end of any season, for me, brings about bittersweet emotions. Yet another season is gone, but the promise of a new one is just around the corner. Summer's closing feels especially fast this year. It may be that I've been filling my days with homeschooling (we're the year-round type I think), reading, and researching how to be a better homeschool mom, or it's that my child is old enough to participate in activities I didn't really give thought to in the early years.

When she was younger, we did go outside, play, and do walks in and out of the stroller. Now she is definitely not a toddler anymore and is so obviously a child and I feel there's so much more to do while the weather is warm: learn to ride a bike without training wheels, learn to swim, walk and hike, perhaps some museums and botanical gardens and nature studies, aquariums and maybe even an amusement park. Who am I?

There is a temptation for me as she, and I, get older to try and do as much as possible. Some days I feel like I didn't do enough, didn't give her a rich experience, or took advantage of the warm weather while it was here. I spent years nurturing a practice of minimalism in my possessions. I'm still working on maintaining a minimalist perspective on our possessions while traveling; it's so easy to lose sight of what we actually own when we're living in two locations! Yet it's still so easy for me to fall into the trap of wanting to provide more experiences for my child. It should come as no surprise that practicing minimalism in these new territories of motherhood can be a little bit challenging.

I'm realizing our experiences as a family are an area I can grow in contentment and intentionality. In the same way that minimizing possessions isn't about depriving ourselves of items, but rather only keeping what's meaningful and valuable to us, our experiences should go through a similar line of questioning:

- Is this activity/experience/trip going to add value to my life?

- Am I participating or doing this because it will give me social clout or because we have been wanting to do this for our own enjoyment?

- Will our summer/autumn/winter/spring still be meaningful and memorable without this activity/commitment?

- Do I need to spend money to get this experience or can I create it for free on my own?

I'm not saying that activities aren't good or that I've even gone so far as to do things for social clout. Anyone who knows me in person knows I probably don't care enough about most people's social standards. However, as my child ages, I do feel an unexplainable pressure to do "all the things with her." I've found this comes up more if I am not spending time with Jesus, my husband, and community. The need to connect, to feel a part of something, is often what drives that "let's do it all!" mentality I can fall into, at least for me.

As I lean into Jesus and the important people in my life, I've been able to identify when this unnecessary pressure shows up and not use it as a decision-maker. I've also found a lot of peace in living with the seasons. God designed us to function this way:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven -

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime; moreover that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor - it is the gift of God.

It makes sense that there would be peace in living with the patterns God has laid out. For the end of summer, my "doing good" and "seeing good in all my labor" looks like being thankful at the end of the day for the things I did with my family.

It looks like making time for the things important to us that are season-sensitive so that they are not a last-minute rush to check it off. Instead, it's something to be treasured, planned for, and savored.

It's not worrying about autumn or winter or even spring - only summer and what it has to offer, even if it is ending.

I'd like to leave you with my favorite memories I've made this summer and encourage you to write yours down in gratefulness, without the temptation to feel time slipping away or see the undone things, just bask in the completion of what you've enjoyed as a family and let it be enough. Then, if there are things you value that you haven't done, prioritize them.

1. Seeing the stars while camping in a forest so remote that two hours before we got to the campsite, we lost cell service.

2. Feeling the wind in my hair and the sun on my face as my daughter plays on the playground and tries new things

3. Exercising outside by walking and hiking

4. Reading so many books

5. Walking with my daughter while she puts nature in her basket for crafts

6. Wave pools 5 minutes from our hotel room

7. My dear friend who shares her home like it's mine too and sets up a slip-and-slide for the kids in her backyard

8. Perpetual ice-cold stevia-sweetened tea

9. Sitting in the sun listening to Leland play guitar

10. E picking wildflowers off the side of the road for a bouquet that we put in a wine glass in lieu of a vase

11. Heat lightning and fireworks competing for first place

12. Watercolor art outside on a blanket in the grass between the strip mall and the hotel

13. Late bedtimes without stressing about next-day ramifications

14. Library summer reading coupons for cakes and ice cream

It's a beautiful life we're living and there's joy to be found in every season!

~ m