This week’s one word blog carnival word is “Season”.

It’s tempting to cue The Birds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn” here, quoting Ecclesiastes.   I love that song and the idea that we need to remember that things won’t always be as they are, both the good and the bad.

But as I was writing this, I got to thinking about how apples don’t grow in spring, and peaches don’t grow in the autumn, and grapes don’t grow in winter…

Last year was a tough season for me.  Last February  I lost my mom.  (No, I didn’t take her to the mall and accidentally let go of her hand.  It’s my euphemism for saying she died.)   I blamed myself.  I became very depressed.   I went to an indoor waterpark and broke my toes on my right foot last November.  I had to keep my foot elevated, and my husband had to make Thanksgiving dinner.  I could not decorate for Christmas (which was actually okay, because I didn’t really feel like it anyway being that it was the first one without Mom).   The New Year began with a snow storm, and in the Spring I developed some female troubles that all of Bloggyland doesn’t want to read about.

A new season began for me this summer.  My female troubles turned out to be caused by a need for an increase in my thyroid medicine.   That not only seemed to help my uterus (TMI?  Sorry…), but my feelings of depression.   Oh, mom is still gone, and I miss her, but I know she loved Jesus, and is happy.   I also know that when I get good advice from my aunt or an elderly woman at Church, my mother enjoys heaven all the more, because she doesn’t have to worry that no one will tell me to wear a sweater or remind me to take vitamins !  I’m feeling more energetic, and actually go to the gym and workout, and I vacuum my carpets every so often.   (Bob is thrilled that being able to “eat off my floor” now means that the carpet is clean, and not that there are still leftovers on it.)

But I know this pleasant new season isn’t forever.  Something will happen.   Perhaps winter blahs.  Perhaps it will be my Mom’s birthday this November.  (She’d have been 75, and I’d have made a party for her with friends and family).   Perhaps one of the machines at the gym will attack me and I’ll be laid up again for a few weeks.

But the one constant during all seasons, good and bad, is God’s love.  So long as I lean on the Holy Spirit, I’ll make it through the next tough season.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

I can’t imagine getting the fruits of long-suffering and self-control without a tough season any more than I can imagine growing grapes in the middle of winter.

What fruit have I grown during my tough and pleasant seasons?  I don’t know.  I’m not sure they are ripe yet!  :-)