Learn and grow

There is a season for everything; a season to sprout, a season to blossom, a season to mature. Everything in nature works at its own pace, progresses at its own rate, and women – we’re no different.  We all have our seasons.

One of my favorite seasons is that of the teenager.  What did my mother used to say…sixteen going on twenty-seven?  The young lady who knows everything?  I can’t help but smile at the memory.  What a great time in life.  It was a coming of age, a platform for launch into the exciting world of adulthood.  I knew everything and my mother…well, she knew nothing.  Not about my feelings, not about boys, and does it go without saying?  Not about fashion. 

To her credit, she took this season in stride.  She didn’t fight, didn’t fuss – not too much, anyway – because she knew what lay ahead.  She understood this was my last “breeze” through life, and thus, allowed the winds of change to blow as they may.  Her daughter was home, safe and secure under her watchful eye (though testing every curfew set forth!) and still retained her innocence; the genuine kind.

Innocence isn’t lost when boyfriends knock, or life hands you sour grapes.  No, innocence is lost when you become a “woman of the world” and reality hits.  For some, it crashes onto the scene.  Either way, you’re on your own, making your own decisions, determining your own direction and then suddenly, you realize there’s no one there to catch you, no one to whisper in your ear, “No, not that one.  Pick the other one!”  

And then you pick wrong.  They may cringe when you fall, but it’s your face that hits the dirt, not theirs.  It can be an empowering time in our life as we chase our dreams and seek our fortunes, discover the magic of love, and come to understand that every choice we make defines our character.  Will we be of service, or self-serving?  Will we embrace the spiritual, or the superficial?  Will we unearth possibility, or bury our hearts with the impossible?

Utopia lies in our growth.  It lies in lessons learned.  Every situation presented before us is an opportunity, an invitation if you will, to learn and grow, to become bigger and better, but the choice is ours to make.  It’s always ours to make.  Life may dish out storms, clouds, sunshine or drought, but it’s our choice how to react to the world around us.

Will we run for cover?  Will we sit on the garden bench, admiring the rows others have tilled?  Will we envy their blossoms?  Throw down our hoe and resent the harvest others have reaped, because we found it too difficult?  Or will we get digging and create the environment for growth to flourish.  We choose the location, plant the seeds…  We nourish and sustain them, looking forward to a bountiful feast.  We do all this – for ourselves and for others.

The landscape of life is what it is.  Accept it, tolerate it, and be grateful for the opportunity.  Everything happens for a reason and a purpose…and it serves us.  How well, depends entirely on us.