A Season of Hearts<3
February, being the season of hearts and a short month in the depths of winter, makes for a good deal of contemplation. We just celebrated Valentine's Day and now we sit amidst beautiful hint-of-Spring-like weather. What does the season of love and the season of cold days and barren trees have in common?
Think for a moment of the human heart and all the emotions involved with being a part of that which we were created to be. The heart (emotionally speaking, not scientifically) experiences its seasons just as creation. We have the spring of our lives when we are growing and learning to love, taught to us by those who show us love. We have our summers when we find love and settle into experiencing and learning all this entails as well as teaching as we pass love on to someone else. It may be for someone significant in our lives that we choose to spend a lifetime or just a period of time with. It may be for a child that we've been gifted or even multiple children. It can be an especially close friendship with someone who knows us inside and out. Then we have our seasons of fall where our love settles into something comfortable, yet extraordinarily beautiful. There is a peace in the ways we love because of the experiences we've had with love just as there is a peace in the weather as temperatures soften. There are also winters in which we feel as if we lose more love than we give: the ones we've chosen to share our lives with may leave us earlier than we expected, our friends may move far away so we see them less than we want, our children may grow up and build their own lives leaving less time for us. It is almost as if the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer.
Fortunately, the heart is granted many seasons over-and-over. We don't experience just one Winter, but fortunately we don't experience just one Spring, Summer or Fall either. Life is made up of these cycles of love. People come into our lives and some may exit. Some stay for a long time while others just a brief moment. What is so wonderful is that this happens perpetually!
The greatest news of all is knowing that whatever season we seem to find ourselves in, God is with us. God is present in our growing, loving us as we learn to love others. God is present when we are building a life of love, reminding us that we were first loved. God rests with us in those peaceful, beautiful times of looking back so that we understand the love we gave so freely was because we were loved so completely. And God enters into those winter seasons as well, giving us love and hope for the spring that is yet to come.
With love,
Tracy