Another brand new week, and no matter if you feel rocking and ready to go, a little worse for wear, or somewhere in between, know that your current state of mind and circumstances are just a season. Whether we like it or not, everything changes and everything shall pass.
Great mood? It will eventually morph into a mood that doesn't feel so great or one that just feels "meh".
Feeling really low? It's just a matter of time until the tide shifts and you feel better.
Super busy and frazzled with a boatload of commitments, creative projects, and to do's? Time will bring a different chapter that will be slower, simpler, and not as nutty.
In a drought, whether it be creatively, financially, or socially? It won't last forever. Abundance will show itself sooner or later.
It's a season. It's ALL a season. If you're like me, you can get angry about it, deny it, and struggle against it, hoping it will go away. If you're also like me, you've probably learned through hard won experience that fighting against it doesn't make a bit of difference. Just as winter stays as long as it does regardless of how much we curse the snow, our own seasons have their own timelines that aren't moved by our own kicking and screaming. Both have to run their course.
Whatever season you're going through right now, know you're not alone.
Whatever season you're going through right now, know that you are still YOU.
Whatever season you're going through right now, know that there is some action to take to move towards peace, even if that means being still and being with your feelings of being uncomfortable.
Whatever season you're going through right now, know that it's ok to not be ok.
Whatever season you're going through right now, know that it's ok to feel awesome.
Whatever season you're going through right now, know that it's ok to not be be able to see what's next.
Whatever season you're going through right now, know that you have the power to make something beautiful out of it someday, even if that someday takes awhile.
For me, becoming comfortable with uncomfortable seasons is an ongoing practice--sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For me, learning about and practicing radical acceptance has been instrumental in trying to dance with the changing seasons in a way that feels more like a partnership than a wrestling match. Remembering it's a big experiment is also helpful.
I've long told myself that I have to be in a particularly "good" season to be creative. Ironically, the Starving Artist myth also encourages us to find our creative power only when we're in a particular "bad" season of our life. But the truth is that life doesn't happen at either end of a spectrum, but at every single point along the line that represents the entire infinite range of the human experience. If we aren't required to be in a certain season in order to exercise our creativity, perhaps our creativity can become a practice that we engage in to help us express whatever it is that we are experiencing in the current season of our lives and help us gain peace and clarity. If creativity doesn't require us to be happy or sad, but simply alive and aware of what we are experiencing in the present moment, would we give ourselves more permission to express, to make, to explore more often? What joy and healing might be found in that space?
This week, you may want to take a few moments to sit down in a quiet place and write down a few sentences about how you are feeling and what season you are experiencing. Try not to label the season as "good" or "bad". What small action could you take right now to treat yourself kindly? What might you do to express how you are feeling? Could you draw the season? Write a poem about it? Hum a melody that sounds the way you feel? Dance through it in your kitchen?
Wishing you all a week where you honor the season you're in, no matter if it feels like a blizzard or a summer's afternoon. If you have any wisdom for weathering the seasons of life through creative expression, please do share!