OK my year has only three seasons----- but really it works best for me this way----four seasons may be just too much for this California girl. I have never lived any where I needed to actually think of the seasons too much. My seasons kind of are defined by "taking the patio furniture out to the yard" and "putting the patio furniture under cover from the rain".
My first season was the packing all the things away, releasing past fears, mistakes, "sins". Cleaning up and starting a new year. This began usually somewhere around the Labor Day week end. Put the patio furniture away. Buckle down for the winter, prepare for the start of the school year, re-start of many club activities, prepare for the holidays, Plant the bulbs in the garden.
Season One the New Year Season ends with the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
Moving into the Second Season: the promise of HOPE. The renewing of faith ( things hoped for....), things worked towards, I have been known to start tap dancing lessons in this season, to spend long hours blogging (like I am doing right now), hankering down and ordering plane tickets, registering for conferences, setting up goals, planning my yearly budget, planning my yearly vacation time. Planning my year around the seeds having been planted, making choices what needs to "grow", cutting off dead branches, preparing for new growth, preparing the soil with nutrients and toil. Gathering my tools, renewing web site fees, buying hardware, software for computer related projects, entering into year long contracts. This season of stepping out in faith for things HOPED FOR ends on Easter Morning.
OK --- my tradition for the new season---
Having prepared myself for the year.
I have thought about what I want to do in the new year,
I have planned for what I want to do in the new year,
I have hoped for what I want to do in the new year.
Now I release it to God. (and yes my husband participates with me).
RELEASING: My husband and I place the things HOPED FOR through out the year in our GOD box. We place Prayer request, concerns, worries, etc written on a piece of paper and placed in a pretty box. Our GOD box is God's IN_BOX -- a prayer request box. We keep the box placed somewhere prominent in our home. Usually near a passage way we travel by several times a day. This reminds us to send up a prayer for our requests each time we pass it.
We review our pieces of paper with our prayer requests from the GOD box sometime between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. The week of Easter miracles. I can and should write blogs on miracles.
At reviewing we are often amazed to review all the prayers that had been answered. We cherish and give thanks for every prayer that has been answered.
When our grandson Nicholas was born premature; his grandfather put many request in the GOD box for him and his parents.
But if in our review of the pieces of paper, we find there is unanswered prayer or on-going prayer issues. We set them aside and pray hard that MIRACLE WEEK.
Come Easter morning, we review pieces of prayer still needing prayer, we count them up. We then purchase a helium filled balloon for each item we are releasing to GOD. We tie a string to each piece of paper and go somewhere to release the balloons.
This is usually a special sharing time for Tony and I. The flight of the balloons varies each year with weather conditions, locations, and our energy level. We prayed throughout the year for these items --- it is now time to release them and give them to GOD.
This releases us to "fly" lightly. To fly without weight or drag. To float and let GOD.
To be in the world but not apart of it: To be in our physical LIFE'S but also fly in our Spiritual LIFE'S.
My cup is overflowing theory---- with matter that can be seen and matter that can not be seen but can be proven that it does exist.
The step into the new realization. I think of it like I planned for the year, I buckled down and did what I could do, and now I release it to GOD to complete the job. That feeling of lift like in an airplane/ kite/ . I prepare the airplane, then I stretch out my arms and run as fast as I can and then the draft lifts my wings and I fly. I walk into Holy Spirit space. I realize I am no longer in the driver's seat. and the garden grows, and the children show what they learnt that year, and your classes conclude with new knowledge, and the dance recitals, and the county fairs share the sewing and woodwork projects, and it can be beautiful. It can and is beautiful if prepared for and "hoped for". If you can not HOPE for it --- it may be there but you just can not see IT.
So I float into my Easter to Labor Day "vacation". The part where I live in HOLY SPIRIT.Letting GOD and letting GO. Viewing things from a different perspective. Going on my trips, enjoying my garden, traveling, visiting family and friends, sharing my projects and enjoying others sharing their projects, getting out in nature. This long vacation idea probably came to me as a child. Easter to Labor Day Weekend was one long summer to me as a kid. And I loved it and still do.
Which would bring me back to September and another Happy New Year. A little older, A little wiser, but ready to do it again! It will be time to buckle down for another winter.....
No comments:
Post a Comment