Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 11-12 (NIV)
A cold front blew through our area and swept across the southeast at the end of last week ushering in the season of fall with its cooler temperatures and brisk breezes. At about the same time our two granddaughters, a young friend, and Randi, my sister, here for a visit, swept through the playroom and other parts of our home leaving behind them the signs of their wonderful invasion.
The house is now straightened up and cleared of toys and games which marked their play this past weekend. And after spending some time straightening up and putting away playthings which seem to come to life in the precious little hands of my granddaughters, the rooms were returned to some semblance of neatness. The only thought which came to my mind was…
“I wish it were still full with toys and games, and with them.”
I have found that I tend to feel that way a lot during this fall season of my life.
Maybe that’s why as the pages of the calendar continue to turn ever-so-quickly it has become my favorite of all the seasons. It seems to be a more reflective time. The myriad of colors of the changing leaves paint vividly the emotions of the time and the season. The air is cooler. The breezes are more brisk and yet gentle as they touch and blow through your hair. The holidays are just around the corner where pages will be added to the albums of family memories.
I suppose it comes with the territory. Getting a bit older, that is. And with more moments spent in times of reflection. Feeling a bit more mortal with each passing day. Realizing that tomorrow really isn’t promised and all the faces around you then may look much different than those which are around you today. I suppose that’s why I get up very early every couple of days and ride down to my granddaughter’s house—now that they live nearby—to wave goodbye to them as they head off to school. I suppose that’s why we also have promised them that we would move to where they decide to go to college one day. Really.
Fall. It’s a season of life which everyone—of any and every age—should embrace throughout their whole life. It’s a season where the important things in life seem to come into much clearer focus. A time to be reminded that the important things are not simply to be reflected upon, remembered or embraced in the fall of our lives. But in every season of our lives.
Yet sadly this season is too often ignored by those flying through the spring or summer of their lives. Times when it seems like we are trying to make a living, a name, climb a ladder or two to build a successful career. I did that for too long and missed a lot of memory-making moments of kicking leaves with loved ones, ballgames, family meals and holding hands. Times when I felt immortal—feeling that I and anyone I held dear would live forever—and this was the time to become successful, at least according to all the pundits in a society which continues to spin out of control on the altar of “there is never enough.”
I was made to believe—and for a time bought into it—that there would be time later to see my family. There would be time later to spend with my spouse, child, and friends. Rationalizations, as moments now forever gone, passed me by. Rationalizations, while missing memories never to be remembered—because they were never made.
Today it’s different. “Never again” is the theme for me and the rest of my days. But “never again” seems to come with the territory of getting a bit older. And with it an attitude and season of reflection. Maybe it’s because the air is a bit cooler and you can feel the breeze gently blowing through your hair. But whatever the reason, it’s a season of clearer understanding of the truly important things of life.
And so let me suggest to my younger friends now in the spring and summer of your lives—and even my “fall friends” who are still on the treadmill of “you can never have enough”—that you stop and reflect for a moment on what is truly important in life. Why wait until the fall of your life, or later, when your hair is a bit thinner and beginning to gray, to begin to reflect on the things and people that truly matter. Tomorrow may be too late. Opportunities to make truly once-in-a-lifetime memories will be forever lost.
My younger Granddaughter spent the night with us last night; and I will see my elder Granddaughter later. I can’t wait to see what the playroom will look like when they descend upon it again, full of toys and games, and full of them.
The season of fall, a season of reflection—at any age.
The most glorious of seasons reflecting on the most meaningful of moments and memories to be made—at any time of year, during any season of life.
Live them now.
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2011. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
