Seasons of Life

Well here we are in Wisconsin…wondering is it spring yet as we still have those chilly nights and then also getting antsy for summer.  Have you ever really thought about the changing of the seasons?  Or is it just one of those things that happens?  Is it something that you look forward to or something you dread?

• Spring…typically thought of as a time of rapid growth.  The turning of the tide from dormancy to life when everything bursts out in bloom. It is time for change.
• Summer…a time of warmth and light and also slow, steady growth.
• Autumn…a time of change and preparation.  We look toward what lies ahead while celebrating what has past. It is a time to let go of what didn’t take root.
• Winter…a time of beauty in hardship.  It is a space of holding steady and hibernation.

What if we take a moment to consider how, just like the earth has seasons, our lives also go through seasons?

The seasons of our life are, sadly, not as predictable as the earth’s!  Sometimes our seasons last a long time – sometimes a great deal longer than we want them to!  Sometimes they last for a short period of time.  Some years we may be in only one season while other years we may go through many, many seasons.

This is where the beauty lies!! Each season is different.  Each season will bring to us its own unique set of challenges, blessings, and opportunities.  Each season will reveal more of our character as we allow it to refine, prune, and shape us.  We cannot control the seasons coming into our life, but just as our yoga practice teaches us, we can control how we respond to each one.  When we walk into a season with an attitude of learning, growing, and curiosity,  there’s no end to what we can accomplish no matter if the season is warm and delightful or cold and dark.

So Spring….Here we are. The season where plants spring from the ground and leaves burst from the trees.  A time of new birth and explosive growth.  Spring is a jump-start, growing season.  A time of stretching.  A time of renewal and newness.  A time of planting.  Some growth we see immediately in spring, like leaves on the trees and the wildflowers springing from the ground.  Other growth, we have to plant and wait patiently for it to mature in the ground before it begins coming up and continues the slow, steady growth through summer.  Spring is a season of moving from the cold of winter to the warmth the sun brings.  It’s a season of renewal and fresh perspective.

It’s this way in life, as well!  Spring is a time where we move from the deep, inner learning of winter to living what we’ve learned.  It’s a time where we can see and feel growth happening.  Sometimes this growth is painful, but the results and the fruit are so worth the effort! Just like the sweetness of our savasana, the sweat and the struggle of our asana provide us the sweet release of rest. Spring offers us this rest from the winter we just experienced.

Spring is a time to be celebrated.  A time to marvel at the changes taking place in our life and in the lives of the people around us.  It is a time of high energy and sometimes a lot of action!  But in the action, in the commotion, in the excitement, don’t forget to take time to rest and savor the moments as they happen.  We need to live in the moment and enjoy them for all they’re worth! We need to remember to take time to appreciate all the growth, the new life, and the blooming that is happening.  

When the different seasons of life come (and they will) these memories of spring, the reminder of the joy and the fullness of growth will give us motivation to keep going.  These memories remind us no matter which season of life we’re in now, spring does come.

What season are you in right now? Each season looks different for each person.  Each season comes with its own unique set of challenges and blessings.  Each season is unique all to itself and no two seasons will look exactly the same.

Where do you find yourself right now?  Do you find yourself hating the season you’re in?  Longing for it to be over so that you can move on?  

One thing I have learned over and over again in this life is our mindset is KEY to the experience we will have within the season of our life.  Don’t simply try to get through it and get on with life.  Slow down.  Feel the feels. Grieve what needs to be grieved. Laugh at the insanity. Start to change your mindset and look a this hard time as a learning experience…a GROWTH opportunity rather than a time to simply endure and get behind you.  

As many of you know I am coming out of a deep, dark, LONG winter and am currently in syncopation with our earth’s season of spring. If you don’t know, the last 5 years have been quite the long winter filled with many devastations and challenges, from care giving to the aftermath of my father’s death, to a car accident where I could barely walk and still suffer its consequences, to untangling my life in a divorce, to moving twice in the last 3 months, to COVID almost destroying this yoga business, to the not fast enough rebuild of our yoga community after COVID, to the putting my dog down, and for the finale….the now present gift of having to move the yoga studio from where we have been for over 20 years. 

All of these circumstances taught me patience and perseverance. I was at the mercy of a process I had no control over. I am a shameless and relentless activator so waiting….unable to move something along…..the inability to take control was and is excruciating. With these struggles I was taught humility, grace, compassion, and the ability to ask for and ACCEPT love and help from others.  I freely give all these things to others, but to accept them….to ask for them….to give voice to what I need….well that is a big ask since I am used to going it alone, stepping up and in to whatever situation is before me, and handling it. I learned to be in the moment since it was literally a time where in the moment, one breath at a time, was all I could muster.

Some of these circumstances are still teaching me and are still interwoven in the fabric of my life.  For instance, the moving of the studio….I am in contract negations with the future building owner. The future building is under construction with no exact timeline to finish since supply chain issues continually provide challenges.  The new building owner in our current space will be making our studio into a wine bistro and this will require massive construction efforts and there is no definitive timeline to start. Once again, at the mercy of the system and the guidance of Magic 8 Ball…we cross our fingers and hope the time of future building and current building coincide so our yoga schedule remains in tact. We have contingent plans for if the timing does not work out….since I am a strategic thinker, however those plans depend on the weather being warmer in nature.  It’s a bit of a circus for sure and I am sure on the other side of this one day…..I will laugh and say “Wasn’t that something??!!”.  Right now, I’d rather say…..well not very nice things….most of which rhyme with Siri’s favorite autocorrect, Duck.

The key is to embrace our current season….no matter how shitty, scary, chaotic, unknown, exciting, wonderful, magical, or devastating. We need to learn all we can from what is happening right here and right now.  We need to lift up our eyes and see the beauty all around us. We need to cultivate the vision to see the beauty, the potential to learn, to see those around us supporting us and waiting to love on us…. and we need to CHOOSE to do so.  It is a choice to view life this way. Choose wisely.

Our yoga practice teaches us all of this and more. Our yogic lifestyle offers us the chance to live from the witness space. To respond rather than react. To breathe. To be in the moment and with presence.  To honor our life and surrounding circumstance. Even when we have times where we want to sit down and quit…we need to remember THAT is a choice. Just like tapping out in asana….it is always a choice. 

What happens if we stay in it?  If we embrace and submerge ourselves in the season at hand....?

Well...

We may just discover how powerful, magical, miraculous, reselient, truly divine, and strong we actually are.

Onward and upward

Let’s go!