The Beauty of the Natural Progression of Life

Wise Solomon knew of what he spoke when he said, "To everything there is a season. And there is a time for every purpose under the heavens."

As I was sitting around a kitchen table with some close friends, these words rang true to me. We've traveled together through life's seasons when it was a "time to laugh." We've also surrounded each other throughout life's trials when it was a "time to weep."

However, it suddenly struck me that we had arrived in the (dare I say it?) -- the "Pre-Plastic Surgery Discussion Season." This is the season when the concept is bantered around a bit as a possibility for another season in the fast-approaching future. Would this be classified as another "time to weep?" Perhaps not. I was hearing cure-all words like botox, nip, tuck, and collagen.

Hmmm -- I began to reflect -- It seemed like just yesterday when we, girls, liked to think we were in "Hot Chick Season." This season begins around the teenage years, moves through college days and carries us to our wedding day and well into the first half of pregnancy, as a "Glowing Hot Chick." This would be the "time to embrace," because around the sixth month, you suddenly see the image of yourself looking oddly like an "un-embraceable" giant tick.

After the tick "pops," you are ushered into a wonderful new world that you soon discover is not a season you own anymore'"and it's quite alright. Your child's seasons become your seasons and it is a "time to plant" where you nourish and create a sense of safety and security for your child's well-being. And that's all that matters. Take heart, this season only lasts a mere 18 years.

The first season of your child's life revolves around the "Baby Rocking, Feeding and Sleeping Season." Your child's schedule consumes your every waking and your every sleeping moment. Hot Chick Season is becoming an even fainter memory. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to matter because it is a "time to love" in a way you never thought possible-- and that makes it all worthwhile for you and for your child.

As your child develops, you find yourself in "Primary Color Plastic Stuff Season." Brightly colored plastic toys take over your household and reside in every corner. This is only to be replaced a short time later by the "Ball/Barbie Season" that lasts quite a while. You do have the occasional temper tantrums with which to deal, but basically this is a fun, innocent period. It should be treasured because "Bonehead Bridge Season" and all its hormones lay in wait just around the corner. Sometimes, the teen-age years can occasionally feel like a "time of war." There's hope. After arriving on the other side of the bridge'"the link-- our kids will have hopefully reached a new level of maturity. It is now their "time to cast away" for their own seasons of hopes and dreams.

Now -- back to the kitchen table with my friends. There we sat, most of my friends having survived the seasons of raising children. We have arrived or are on the precipice of a new kind of freedom where the seasons are our own again. We can look forward to sharing our seasons with our almost grown up kid/adults.

The prospects of the possibility of revisiting (by way of surgery) the Hot Chick Season sounded intriguing at first. But then -- I took a good long look around the table at the faces of my friends. I thought they were beautiful faces. They were kind, genuine, smiling faces'"faces that wore just a few fine wrinkles-- "life's lines" that told "their" stories. I wondered if these lines could, perhaps, be God's refund to us-- a gift, a badge of honor that reflects that we have spent seasons and seasons of living our "purpose under the heavens." We have laughed, wept, embraced, planted and most importantly -- loved.

Postpone the surgery or better yet, forgo it. Go with the natural flow. Embrace the wrinkles. Age gracefully, laughing all the while with your friends around a kitchen table as often as possible.

It is now the season that is our "time to dance."