Falling Through Seasons of Life

I took a walk at Mill Creek Park the other day while I had a brief minute before I needed to be at a client’s home nearby. As I was walking down the trail, I stopped to pick up a big yellow leaf. My daughter loves picking up leaves and tearing them into pieces. In a few weeks when the leaves change and drop she will be in ultimate glory!

As I stared at this leaf it was if a quick snap of film highlights flashed before my eyes. Showing me how much my life has changed over the past six years I’ve been walking these trails. Trekking through the trails six years ago feels more like six lifetimes ago, while simultaneously like it was only a breath ago.

I first started exploring Mill Creek in the Spring of 2013. I had recently met my boyfriend (now husband) and he lived not too far from the park. That spring it was just the two of us.

Then late summer he (we, let’s be real) got our first fur baby. We loved taking Mabel to Mill Creek! The first time we took her, she whined the entire time and then puked from nerves. Too much stimulation. This was such a fun and exciting season. New relationship. New puppy. Easy, breezy.

Then the leaves turned and dropped. Fall changed to winter and we moved to a different state for my husbands job (still boyfriend at the time). I continued my job, working remotely and traveling a few days a week to see clients.

Seasons kept changing and blurring together. Since then we have lived in two more states and four different cities. We added a second furbaby in the Fall of 2016, after our wedding and our first child in the Spring of 2018.

When I look at our family now and how many seasons, long and short, we’ve gone through since that first year, I’m so amazed by how quickly time flies. Now as we are starting to try for baby number two, I can’t help but look at this leaf and the symbolism it holds.

Every year, changing, letting go and growing. Just as we do through life. We change, we get swept up in the breeze of life, we flourish, we take rest. Time moves forward whether we want it to or not.

As I held this leaf, I wondered what this next year will bring. What will our life look like next Fall as the leaves change? Will we have another child, God willing? Will we have bought our home by then? Will I be working or staying at home? Sometimes it feels overwhelming when you don’t know what the future holds. What I do know is that the seasons will change regardless of our plans. So I’m going to try and take a lesson from this lead and just allow myself to be swept along in God’s plan.