Seasons

We're on the cusp of an official change of season, from summer into autumn.  There've been crisp mornings and even a frost warning or two.  I've started drinking pumpkin spice lattes as my own little way of marking the seasons. I've done this for a while now--finding ways to intentionally mark time.  When I went to Australia on tour with my collegiate choir, I sought out a distinct fragrance to take with me. Now, every time I smell ginger lilly perfume, I'm transported back to that trip.  Every autumn, I drink pumpkin spice lattes and after Thanksgiving, I start drinking peppermint mochas.  Little things, making each change distinct.
I hear people say which seasons are their favorites.  Some folks are clearly summer people, who near depression as the weather turns cooler.  Some are solely winter types, who long to get out their snowmobiles and enjoy, what feels like, the longest season here in Wisconsin.  I, however, seem to have a reason to love almost every season for different reasons.  And each year, I find myself resonating with creation.  Appreciating the cooler weather, the time to slow down.  To enjoy the warmth of our home and fellowship of friends and family.  To celebrate and then to enjoy the quiet after the holidays.  I love the sense of rebirth and renewal that comes with spring.  And despite despising the heat, I do appreciate the way my husband's schedule is relieved a bit during the summer months and the time we have to visit and rest.
I remember a time of hopefulness, praying for children, being so comforted by a robin's full nest by our door.  I appreciated the starkness and bleakness of winter during a time of grief.  I was thankful for the season of new life after that time of grief.  It was as though the Lord used creation to pull me along.
I'm looking forward to being pregnant at Christmastime this year: to ponder the Virgin Mary and what she must've been feeling at roughly the same time.  That sense of expectation (and literal fullness) is one I've yet to experience during that time of year.  Our son is due roughly during the season of Epiphany, so we're doing his room and blankets in the theme of stars.  I've made a CD for each of our children:  music that reminds me of that time of expectation, hopes and prayers for those children, songs of comfort for during labor.  I'm frantically trying to find new music for our son. Since he is spaced so closely to his sister, I haven't had a lot of time to discover new music.
Over the past year, I've taken an interest in celebrating the festivals of the Church.  Our latest issue of Lutheran Witness is on this topic.  Talk about being timely!  (haha, I crack myself up). I've appreciated this blog, in coming up with ideas on how to celebrate certain festivals with our daughters.  If for no other reason, we often have a topic of conversation for the day, an activity and sometimes a snack that serves to teach us something.  It's been helpful to be intentional in how we spend our days, not just marking the seasons.  If you all have any resources for celebrating the church year in the home, please pass them along (by the way, I found, at the library, Maria Von Trapp's book about celebrating the church year and it was fascinating.  I want to find my own copy.)
The one thing I've been pondering lately is how seasons, although marking time and their own distinction, also highlight a sense of movement.  We're constantly moving through each season.  Ready or not.  And spiritually, this seems to hold true as well.  The Lord seldom allows us to stay in one season forever.  Such mercy!  We're being walking through the valleys.  Seasons of renewal don't last forever either.  There is nitty gritty work to be done and we can't stay in the solitude of the mountaintops either.  We're always being moved on and through.
My mother used to tell me that sometimes we had people in our lives for only a season.  I've moved a lot in my lifetime.  Not as much as some, but a lot by my standards.  Sometimes I lament that I don't still have a close childhood friend or the women that were so close to me in college still in my life.  I mean, we're connected on Facebook, but there are lots of days where I wish we could gather for a cup of coffee and not have to do immense catching up, but to still enjoy one another. I am learning, however, that even if a person is in our life for only a season, that in no way devalues that relationship.  I am learning to be content and thankful.
So what's your favorite season?  Any little ways you like to mark the passing of time?