With such a tumultuous summer, I am glad that we are now beginning the fall season. There for a while, I didn’t think I was going to get there. But, contrary to my negativity, it has arrived and I am delighted.
Summer was not like summers in the past. My family didn’t have as many gatherings and picnics as we usually do. However, we had one, and that had to be enough for the summer. I hope next summer we can catch up.
I remember when I was young, summer was a wonderful time. But of course, maybe my memories are more wonderful than they really were. At my age, you can’t always depend on your memory. But then, it also goes the other way around.
I am so old that no one can contradict my memories. So I won’t say I’m lying, but I have a way of stretching the truth, just a little bit. And by just a little bit, I mean just enough to make it look better than it actually was.
Of course, the best thing about my summers was not going to school. I was free all summer to do what I really wanted to do. At that time, my parents were working full time and I had the rule of my time.
As I look forward to the fall season, I am confident that there will be some good times to celebrate. This generation seems to be the generation that celebrates, but it often celebrates the wrong things. Some of the things that are celebrated don’t make any sense to me.
For example, I have grown tired of celebrating my birthday every year. After a while, it is a mundane thing to do. How often can you hear someone sing happy birthday to you?
Seasons have ways to come and go, and when you adjust to one season, it ends and the next is just beginning.
During the past summer, the kind lady of the parsonage said several times: “When will this heat disappear?”
I would always laugh and say, “When you’re ready.”
She didn’t smile back at me at the time, but I was still smiling.
Each season has its individual characteristics and sometimes we confuse them. For example, we have the imaginary expectation of perfect weather every day of the season. But to be honest I’m not sure what weather is perfect.
As we approached the fall season, the rain came without a hint of abating.
“When,” said my wife, “will it stop raining?”
As soon as he said that, he looked at me and said, “That was not a question you should answer.”
I laughed because I had an answer on the tip of my tongue.
Contrary to what people think, I like change. The idea is that when you are older you will not like changes, but I would like to contradict that.
I hope to change.
Of course, the biggest change I like is the change in my pocket. But the other change is that I do not like to fall into the routine. I don’t like my wheels going round and round and going nowhere.
I like to enjoy one season, because it always prepares me for the next season.
Of course, the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage is completely against that. I would prefer the season to be the same throughout the year. But I like the change.
I like to enjoy one season and then I want to prepare for the next season.
The bad times during one season prepare me for the good times the next season. If he didn’t have a bad time, he wouldn’t recognize a good time.
As we were sitting watching TV the other night, the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage says, “I really don’t like change. I wish things would stay the way they are.”
“Well,” I said, “you’ve certainly changed over the years.”
She frowned at me and said, “What do you mean?”
Then I tried to explain to him that we have been married for 50 years, and when we started our marriage, we were quite different than we are today.
“I’m not the person you married 50 years ago.”
She looked at me curiously and said, “Who are you?”
She stared at me, and then we both burst into hilarious laughter.
There are two aspects of the change; either for better or for worse. Each season brings the necessary exchange rate to prepare for the next season.
I don’t know what this fall season will bring. Glad I didn’t know because I would probably start the season with great discouragement rather than expectation.
As we discussed, my wife said, “and you are twice the man I married 50 years ago.” I thought about that and looked at her quite strangely, and then she laughed. He hoped it wasn’t explained.
Thinking about that, I was reminded of a Scripture verse, “For everything there is a time, and a time for all purposes under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3: 1).
Right now, I am in the season where God can bless me. I don’t know what the next season has in store for me, but I have faith in God to fully prepare me for the next change.