Welcome to The Wildroot Parables weekly discussions! This is where we can come together as a community and have real talk with one another: open, honest, gracious, and curious.
This is YOUR space to discuss with each other, not just engage with me! Because of this, SAFE SHARING is my highest priority. If you are not engaging safely and with grace with others, you will have to leave. Period.
Thank you for entering this space with care!
Hello all, and happy September! On Monday, our devotional was about the mixed feelings that can come with autumn. Some people love it, but seem people feel unsettled by it, and it’s okay to recognize those feelings! Autumn is a natural time of decline, slowness, and recognition of mortality, so it’s natural to find it difficult. It can even feel like grieving.
Today, our question is: how do you navigate the change between seasons—any seasons? Do you notice those transitions? Are there certain seasonal transitions that are harder than others, for you? What tools do you use to get through…or are you in need of better tools in your toolbox?
I certainly notice my internal changes between seasons and embrace them! I think that after consciously experiencing seasonal depression for 20 years, I feel more in control and better during these times simply because I know what to expect and am ready to accept my low-vibe processes fully. In contrast, I perhaps more easily feel inadequate to the high expectations of "fun-having" that crop up in the middle of Summer.
The tools I use are radical acceptance, storing as many pleasant experiences that I can, compassion for myself, routine and scheduling time to sit with my darknesses, as well as adherence to to-do lists that I can visually check off so that I have a tangible means of seeing and tracking my efforts made. Leaning into art-making is important, and taking on projects will keep me moving. Making good bone broth soup is a challenging to-do that helps, so I can add to my skill growth and store healthy food that I can use when I am too depressed to have the energy to cook properly.
If I am really low, ensuring I drink a lot of water throughout the day and wash/moisturize my face regularly will be my first step on the ladder out of the hole of darkness. Self-care, in this way, gets the wheels turning. Pampering doesn't feel like pampering at first; doing my nails will carry the same taste of sawdust as everything else does when I'm down. But it starts lifting the ropes that eventually carry me out of the doom.
I welcome the natural change of seasons where we live, since my wife and I grew up in southern Texas where there are few visible changes between the seasons. They're enjoyable to me, since they're beautiful proof that the year is moving forward and making progress. Reminders of progress beyond my own day-to-day worries are always welcome.
In contrast—weathering transitions between our lives' personal seasons is harder, since the signs of change are more uncertain and not set in an annual schedule. I'm always in need of patience through a transition (I always want to be on the other side of the change, no matter what it is nor how long it takes). That said, new seasons always remind me what it is to submit to God as He's leading you through uncertainties.
Fall is my absolute most favorite time of the year. As an Airbnb super host, my season winds down and I get to become a guest. In essence, I extend myself from the beginning of May until the beginning of October earning enough money to support myself the remaining six months. I find the whole notion of going back to school regenerative and exciting and I too, can become a student once again by taking adult education classes at my nearby university.
This is a late comment but something I just thought of. I generally do not have problems as the seasons rotate--I am comfortable in Summer and in Winter, and there's beauty to be found in every season.
I do have trouble with the turning of the Corporate seasons, though. I've been pretty unplugged from things lately, so when I walked into a grocery store and it was all pumpkins and fall seasonal goods--starbucks suddenly breaks out the pumpkin spice vaults and lets them pour forth abundantly--I feel like I am being rushed. September for me is the last sip of summer and beginning to smell the next course of fall as it's being cooked in the Kitchen. I kind of enjoy that process, but the Corporate seasonality is very much "SUMMER IS DONE WE ARE ORANGE NOW." and I'm not ready for orange. I still like green!
It just struck me as an oddity in the store the other day--I had to double check that it was still early September.
Thank you as always for hosting this place for reflection and discussion!
I certainly notice my internal changes between seasons and embrace them! I think that after consciously experiencing seasonal depression for 20 years, I feel more in control and better during these times simply because I know what to expect and am ready to accept my low-vibe processes fully. In contrast, I perhaps more easily feel inadequate to the high expectations of "fun-having" that crop up in the middle of Summer.
The tools I use are radical acceptance, storing as many pleasant experiences that I can, compassion for myself, routine and scheduling time to sit with my darknesses, as well as adherence to to-do lists that I can visually check off so that I have a tangible means of seeing and tracking my efforts made. Leaning into art-making is important, and taking on projects will keep me moving. Making good bone broth soup is a challenging to-do that helps, so I can add to my skill growth and store healthy food that I can use when I am too depressed to have the energy to cook properly.
If I am really low, ensuring I drink a lot of water throughout the day and wash/moisturize my face regularly will be my first step on the ladder out of the hole of darkness. Self-care, in this way, gets the wheels turning. Pampering doesn't feel like pampering at first; doing my nails will carry the same taste of sawdust as everything else does when I'm down. But it starts lifting the ropes that eventually carry me out of the doom.
I welcome the natural change of seasons where we live, since my wife and I grew up in southern Texas where there are few visible changes between the seasons. They're enjoyable to me, since they're beautiful proof that the year is moving forward and making progress. Reminders of progress beyond my own day-to-day worries are always welcome.
In contrast—weathering transitions between our lives' personal seasons is harder, since the signs of change are more uncertain and not set in an annual schedule. I'm always in need of patience through a transition (I always want to be on the other side of the change, no matter what it is nor how long it takes). That said, new seasons always remind me what it is to submit to God as He's leading you through uncertainties.
Fall is my absolute most favorite time of the year. As an Airbnb super host, my season winds down and I get to become a guest. In essence, I extend myself from the beginning of May until the beginning of October earning enough money to support myself the remaining six months. I find the whole notion of going back to school regenerative and exciting and I too, can become a student once again by taking adult education classes at my nearby university.
This is a late comment but something I just thought of. I generally do not have problems as the seasons rotate--I am comfortable in Summer and in Winter, and there's beauty to be found in every season.
I do have trouble with the turning of the Corporate seasons, though. I've been pretty unplugged from things lately, so when I walked into a grocery store and it was all pumpkins and fall seasonal goods--starbucks suddenly breaks out the pumpkin spice vaults and lets them pour forth abundantly--I feel like I am being rushed. September for me is the last sip of summer and beginning to smell the next course of fall as it's being cooked in the Kitchen. I kind of enjoy that process, but the Corporate seasonality is very much "SUMMER IS DONE WE ARE ORANGE NOW." and I'm not ready for orange. I still like green!
It just struck me as an oddity in the store the other day--I had to double check that it was still early September.
Thank you as always for hosting this place for reflection and discussion!