My mind keeps drifting back to an art print I saw some months ago about the seasons. It’s so simple, but something about it speaks profoundly to my heart.

spring – sow

summer – tend

fall – harvest

winter – rest

This is the way that the earth and the rhythm of humanity was created, as Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything. And as it seems, this winter is a time to rest. Its when the earth takes a break from all of the sowing and tending and harvesting and it makes way for a bit of healthy hibernation. I think this winter the Lord is ever more impressing this admirable quality into me, that is what I am coming to know it as, a quality of someone who understands rhythm and design, who understands the value of truly  r e s t i n g. 

Yesterday I got the chance for the first time in a while to truly rest, and it was absolutely magnificent. In the midst of the holidays, the planning and shopping, get togethers and christmas parties, work and family and traditions, it all gets to be A L O T. trust me, i know. I’ve been caught up in the swirl well before Thanksgiving graced the calendar, both by occupation and by choice, and I am exhausted. In between it all I catch myself looking around and asking, what the heck is this all for? And while I haven’t quite worked out an answer for that one, I have settled on this one fact: rest must be the foundation for this season, or else everything that we (I) are so keen on building up, will ultimately crumble. So that brings me back to my thursday of bliss; after an appointment at the dmv (decidedly not restful), I felt a deep pull to spend time outside in the chilly, sunlit air. So that I did, I moseyed on over to a park and after taking to the trails for a bit, I found myself the perfect tree to climb up and read my book in. It was almost an intoxicating level of restfulness, the kind that you just know is restoring your very soul. Not worrying about one thing, not planning the next moment or feeling the stress of what hasn’t been done, just being.

To be quite honest, I have found myself over-thinking and over-spiritualizing a lot of things as of lately, rest included, and I have just in these past few days felt this sweet release from the Lord to have moments like yesterday’s. Soaking up the sunshine in the branches of a half fallen tree, not forcing myself to have any sort of revelatory experience, just being close to my creator, doing something that I enjoy and that rejuvenates my soul. I would venture to say that there are several definitions for rest, but I feel quite sure that that must be one of them. All of this to say, remember the rhythm that the Lord put into place before the creation of anything we know; sow, tend, harvest and rest. Allow Him to be the one to dictate which season we are in, not our overloaded calendars and to-do lists. Don’t forget to rest well this season, and maybe just maybe steal a chapter from my book (no pun intended…) and do some climbing and some reading and some sun-chasing, it pretty much always works wonders.

Merry Christmas,

and lots and lots of love, 

em