Life is a Seasonal Thing

Can you believe it’s almost September already? The summer season is almost over! And many of us are already feeling bitter sweet about it! But this week I got to thinking about seasons we encounter in our lives? Many of you are embarking on a new season. Just finished uni? Starting a new job? Some of us are still in a season and have yet to see the end.

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There has been a recurring theme the past few months for me, in that I always want to be in the season ahead or the past season but never in the now. But at the moment everything I encounter seems to be reaffirming the importance of seasonal living.

‘the key is in recognising the season [you are in] and having the capacity to allow each season its purpose.’ Bobbie Houston.

I think Bobbie is on to something. Every season DOES have a purpose – even if it doesn’t really feel like it. The trick is not to waste your time in the past or get ahead of yourself.

And what about friends? Ever reminisce about a friendship that came into your life for a certain time in a certain place?

I am very blessed to have met so many AMAZING people in recent years. But some of the people who have made the greatest impression on me have been people who have come out of nowhere at a time of personal darkness and disappeared again shortly afterwards.

They may have only featured in my life for a limited time but their impact on me has been HUGE.

When I went to New York a few years back I was absolutely petrified. My parents made me watch Taken before I left so I was pretty scared of being sex trafficked or abducted or robbed or murdered. I was so freaked I actually contemplated ‘accidentally’ breaking my own leg by ‘falling’ down the hotel stairs so I wouldn’t have to get on the plane.

When I arrived in Manhattan, alone, I burst into tears. I don’t really know why. I was really tired! Plus I just cry a lot. I was overwhelmed because I had never been completely on my own in this way so far from home. Things were going a bit tits up career wise too and I had gone to discover whether the path I was on was the right one. But the next morning after my Big Apple melt-down I decided to grow a pair of nuts and explore this foreign city on my lonesome. And my journey thus began…

When I attended school in NY I encountered a teacher who changed my life. In his 70s, this man was vibrant, hilarious, kind and his spirit reminded me a little of my own father in many ways. In class he would tell us stories about his encounters with great movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Harrison Ford. He had been on the cusp of movie stardom in his youth, starring in an Oscar winning film, but had lost it all because of his addiction to drugs and troubles in his personal life. Listening to him speak with so much encouragement and wisdom really moved me. He had led a truly amazing life – one which was as drama filled as the movies he had acted in.

I didn’t like this teacher because he had some weepy sob story. I liked him because he was fucking hilarious and a brilliant man. He put life in a whole new perspective for me and he probably doesn’t even know it – but I am a better person because of him.

I left New York knowing that I was somehow different from when I came. I began to well up again in the cab back to JFK (told you… I’m a crier!) – this time is wasn’t fear of the future but sadness that such a wonderful season of my life would never come back again.

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So often we meet, work, live with people for a season, but that doesn’t mean they are any less important than the people we share life with on a day-to-day basis. Maybe this is because their unexpected presence often represents or triggers a change in us. Maybe they give us a fresh perspective?

I am also realizing that no season is more important than another. Some seasons we reap and others we sow. Some we learn and others we grow. (Hey! I’m I poet and I didn’t know it!)

The people that show up for a season are the friends who often teach us the most and they a leave with us a legacy that help us navigate through the next part of our journey. Now, isn’t that just a beautiful thought?

Have a great week peeps!

x

Tags: friendship humour life lessons New York Travel

Categories: Adventureland Mirror Mirror: Self Improvement Yazmin Joy