Seasons of Growth
by Rev. Patrice Joy Masterson, MA, Reiki Master
Life unfolds in circles of reconnection. We start childhood in co-dependent bonding process with our immediate family unit and hometown. This may be a positive experience or one that creates a void. Never-the-less, as a individual gets older, there comes a time of nostalgia and a desire to return to one’s roots. The ‘seasons of growth’ is the story one creates to reveal the drama or peace within.
There are cycles in which the individual seeks outside of him/her self to find fulfillment in relationships, career accomplishment and accumulation of things. When the ‘stuff’ that surrounds this person becomes boring or cluttered, a sense of detachment and loneliness sets in. This leads to a point of searching for a deeper meaning in life. Buying more things, superficial relations and overload of activities are ways to develop the story, but these are never the answer to true self-fulfillment. The’ seasons of growth’ involves lessons learned from the story of all these efforts.
If a person doesn’t look beyond the tread mill of survival mentality, the pattern of hiding from oneself leads to stress, illness and disappointment. The circles and cycles continue to lead in a downward spiral as the opportunity to learn keeps presenting itself in the same recurring type of self –victimization The person finds the next abusive dilemma and responds over and over again in the same way, rather than growing with the’ seasons of life.’
The seasons of a person’s life correlate to the calendar’s seasons which bring ever changing flow. Spring offers the time for budding of new possibilities (youth and puberty); summer brings warm lazy days to relax after the planting process (mid-life age 40-50); fall is the harvest of one’s investment of time (retirement); winter is the shutting down of old age.
Each season of life has its own pleasures and pain. It is up to the individual to accomplish what is truly important and find the priorities before the clock gives us its warning toll. Hopefully, the individual has considered what his/her time has been devoted to as the seasons of their life changed. What has been brought into being by the seasons of life that were chosen?