What Season are You in?

This is your time. This I know for sure. But you must first know the season you’re in. And yes, you need to think of your life as having seasons. It’s the best metaphor.

I know some people who label their experiences in life as “….well it all comes down to the luck of the draw. You’re either born WITH it or you’re not.”

Others say that life is composed of those who have an those who don’t. Some are born rich, some are meant to be poor.

Then there’s Forrest Gump whose mother said that life was like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. Which I guess prepared him for the many surprises in life. But she also told him that dying was a part of life.

He wished that it wasn’t.

But that’s what viewing our own lives in the context of seasons involves – embracing all that life offers us as we adventure through. Eating the chocolates we like, eating chocolates we don’t like.

I found this interesting “share” in Wiktionary. Apparently the first appearance of the chocolate box metaphor was In the book Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, first published in Japanese in 1987, and in English in 1989…

“You know, they’ve got these chocolate assortments, and you like some but you don’t like others? And you eat all the ones you don’t like as much? I always think about that when something painful comes up. ‘Now just polish these off, and everything’ll be OK.’ “

All the seasons you are meant to experience is contained in your special box of chocolates but you need to know, be able to determine which season you’re in.

Are you in a time of preparation? Either patiently waiting or preparing to receive the seeds that will facilitate your own growth? Should you be tending more to the seedlings now? Developing the discipline, the right habits: watering, weeding, nurturing, fertilizing? Or are you ready to reap a bountiful harvest?

You need to be mindful – to not MISS a season or to try to fast forward a season quickly – getting ahead of the time it would actually take to become WHO you were meant to become.

Marianne Williamson says

In your life you have two choices: you can play it shallow or you can play it deep

Most of us, consciously or unconsciously play it shallow. We skim. We don’t benefit from whatever season we’re in and we are disappointed at harvest time. Stephen R. Covey said it best