I suppose that’s where I find myself these days, somewhere between summer and winter.
I’m no longer the woman I was when life felt like an endless summer, when there was always another child to raise, another goal to chase, another hill to climb.
But I’m not ready for winter either.
Maybe that’s what October is trying to teach me. There is beauty in the season between seasons, just as there is beauty in every season of life.
We don’t always recognize that we’re entering a new season until we’re already there. Sometimes we spend so much time preparing for the next one that we forget to appreciate the one we’re actually living.
I’ve done that more times than I care to admit, looking ahead, wondering what was coming next, instead of pausing long enough to notice what was happening right in front of me.
Perhaps that’s what I’m learning now. I don’t have to have all the answers about what comes next. I don’t need to rush toward the next chapter simply because the current one is changing.
I can pause here.
I can look around.
I can be grateful.
Summer had its purpose. Winter will have its purpose, too. But October reminds me that this season deserves to be noticed, embraced, and lived fully, not just endured on the way to something else.
Maybe that’s why I find something comforting about the changing leaves. They don’t fight the change. They don’t cling to what they were. They simply let go when the time comes.
There is something beautiful about that kind of trust.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” — Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)
Somewhere between summer and winter, I think I’m learning that the in-between isn’t something to hurry through.
It is a season of its own.
And maybe, just maybe, it is one worth savoring.
From Heart to Heritage
