Thankful for the Seasons of Life

The first week of school (for the kids) has come and gone. Everyone did just fine & is enjoying their teachers and classes. The first few mornings were a little difficult for Sarah, though. Her nerves were getting the best of her & it was hard to get her to school without some tears, but she made it and is perfectly fine now.

Savannah is in her final year of junior high. Scary...this time next year, she'll be in High School! In 3 years, she'll be driving. Samuel's only got 1 more year of elementary school & Sarah's just 1 year behind him. It is nearly impossible for me to believe that these kiddos are growing & getting so big so quickly, but I know their childhoods are just a season of their life.

I was reminded of that today. If you've read this blog for a while, you'll remember that in May of '07, I left a job at a church day care that I loved. (and if you don't recall or weren't reading at that time, I'll post a link at the end of this post later tonight....I'm not going to hunt through the archives right this minute) The day care was closing down and we really needed more money than I could make just working 2 days/week, so at the end of that school year, I quit & began my hunt for a 5 days/week job. I found an amazing private preschool which I completely ADORE and I'm certain that God has me just where I'm supposed to be. But at that time, the pain of leaving a place that was so familiar with such a 'family' of amazing women was almost unbearable. I went to the building during the last few days it was open & just walked through the halls, so sad to see all the empty classrooms. It was so tragic to hear the silence in the hallways, no longer the giggles & cries of children. That place was such a blessing to so many people, so seeing it close down was hard.

Today we had a little reunion for those of us who worked there. We were missing a lotttttttt of the teachers (there were 40 of us) but many of them have moved or couldn't be located when they planned this little get together. The ones of us who came replayed memories, talked about the kids who we worked with, heard stories of what we've all been doing since those sad days of 2007. Glenna, our sweet director, was recalling that she had worked at the center for 12 years & remarked about how it's been 2 years since it closed, how it was such a sweet time of her life. The term "season" came to mind as she was saying that. While none of us wanted to see the day care close and the safety net of those relationships fall apart, the truth is, most of us have gone onto great things since then, things that we wouldn't have experienced if we hadn't been shoved out the doors of Pleasant Hill CDC. Some of the ladies have gone back to school to finish a degree. Others moved to new homes in new towns. Some of us have found a 'dream' job at another location (some at other day cares, some in the public school system, others of us at private schools).

Sure, it would be easy to fall back on sour grapes, to gripe & complain and be angry about the circumstances surrounding the close of our beloved center. But, the truth is, no matter how much we wanted to see PHCDC stay open, it was a season of our lives that we can relish in the memories of, but God knew that season would end exactly when it did, and we've all been allowed the privelege of following His lead elsewhere since then.

We talked about some of our own kids, how much they've grown since the time that we all began working together. Most of the ladies I visited with today were there far longer than I was, so some of their kids who were newborns or toddlers when they went to work there are now teens. I watched those same kids walk into & out of the room while we talked and had to smile.

The seasons of life we pass through are so powerful & they shape us to be who we are. Like many people, I don't "do" change well. I have a hard time saying good-bye and moving onto something new that requires me to meet new people & get plugged into a different place. It's uncomfortable and I would like to just tuck myself into a corner & hide and never really have to put myself out there. It's hard to let down your walls & allow yourself to be transparent to new people when you don't know if they're "safe" yet or not. Of course, we don't know who's safe until we trust them with a little piece of our heart and see how they treat it. But ya know... how many times do we look back on a previous season & enjoy flipping the pages of our mental scrapbooks? Don't we all look back at the days gone by of your childrens' lives and laugh about things they said or did? How about the memories of your own childhood? Yes, time goes on. People move on. Seasons come & go. But HE created us that way on purpose. The earth passes through seasons as well, summer giving way to fall which passes into winter and then spring.

Ironically, when I got into the car after leaving our reunion party, Nichole Nordeman's song "Every Season" came on the CD I had been listening to on the way. A tear slipped down my cheek as I was reminded how God created us to live through seasons of life like this one. He doesn't want us to forget the past, but He did create us to move forward & keep going when one season ends & another begins. The part that really struck me was this:

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring

In case you've never heard the song, here's a link to the video. It's a beautiful song reminding us about the seasons of life.



I love you, PHBC CDC ladies. Thank you for being part of an amazing season of my life.


Edited to add:
The post I mentioned in the top of this is found here.