Well hello! It’s been 7 months since I’ve shown up in your inbox with a new post but it’s good to be back and push pause with you as we explore faith, rest, and beauty in our everyday lives. If you’re new here, welcome!
September has opened its arms to us and it feels like a fresh start. Last week my kids went back to school and the celebration of Labor Day always feels like the unofficial end of summer to me. Summer held sweet memories with fun and rest tucked in its days, but it was also hard for various reasons and I’am ready for the fresh start of the changing seasons.
Transitions and changes can be nice but it’s not all easy-breezy. Fresh starts can carry sadness in the midst of the excitement. It can be energizing and also draining to notice the shift of one thing changing while embracing a new way. This is true whether it’s a change of seasons, relationships and community, job & vocation, schools, homes, or changes within yourself and new ways you’re growing. By nature life is constantly changing and those shifts can carry a lot of feelings with them that sometimes take us by surprise. The best gift we can give ourselves in the midst of these changes and feelings is to pay attention and notice what is there. Is there something deeper to these feelings that we need to tend to in our spirits? Is there a lesson to take from and give thanks for from the season we’re leaving behind?
I didn’t expect the shift to having my oldest start high school to hit me so hard but it did. I had trouble sleeping the night before and found myself extra tender on that first day of school. As I paid attention to what was going on, I was able to see that it wasn’t just that he was starting high school, it was more encompassing than that. It’s that our days of parenting our kids have shifted. We’re in a new season of parenting that looks a lot different now that they are 12 and 14. It’s great but also challenging in new ways. It’s a parenting season that feels more emotionally tiring than physically tiring and a little lonlier. We’re navigating the changes. We are growing with them in our parenting and there are growing pains for all of us.
Fresh starts are beautiful beginnings but they can carry an ache along with them. They may require new things from us or a shedding of old ways. It’s okay to rejoice in the fresh starts and simultaneously mourn the past. We carry it all knowing that in the love of God we are held always and forever.
Are you experiencing any fresh starts or new beginnings? These aren’t always external. Maybe you’ve shifted in your understanding of who you are or grown into new wisdom. Perhaps your faith has expanded or new questions have surfaced. Maybe you’re recognizing the close of one season but are grieving that and not ready or able to see the fresh start just yet. Pay attention to it all. Be gentle with yourself and let yourself be curious in the gracious presence of God as you listen and learn from what’s there.
A Resource
A writer I love, Sarah Westfall, recently wrote a piece called, When the Honeymoon Ends, that builds on the theme of changes and fresh starts.
A Practice
For the past 7 months I stepped away from writing in this space as I worked and finished my training in spiritual direction. In May I completed the 2 year program and am thankful for the ways that program shaped me and I’am excited for the fresh start of taking new steps in the ministry of spiritual direction. If you’d like to learn more about spiritual direction or are interested in talking more to me about it, visit my website.
Great article as usual! Missed reading these! New beginnings for our family with baby Coble. He’s a cutie! We Miss y’all! Congratulations on being a spiritual director!
So proud of you Lindsay!