{Writing Wednesday: Thoughts on Savoring This Season}

It's been a minute since I've done a #writingwednesday, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been on my mind. Finding the routine of school again after so many months of it looking vastly different has been good, but it's also been challenging.

Speaking of challenging, today's post is about a reflection prompt that I found particularly challenging this week. Many of you already know that I use PowerSheets by Cultivate What Matters to help me stay focused on my goals for the year (not sponsored). Sprinkled throughout PowerSheets are reflections on each season, what's working, what might need to change, etc. I was finally getting around to looking at my Fall goals, and the first page has this writing prompt: What I Want To Savor This Season.

Wait, what?

I know that when the CWM team was creating these prompts, they had no idea what we would have gone through by the time October 2020 hit. And normally, I'd be happily filling in all the Fall things that fit so perfectly with the word savor, defined as: taste and enjoy completely.

But when I think about 2020 and all the ways our lives have changed so drastically over the course of the last 6 months, I don't think about things I want to savor. I feel like Price Humperdink from the iconic movie, The Princess Bride:  "Skip to the end..."

I'm ready to be done with all of this. Masks, restrictions, loss... I'm feeling more than a bit over it. And even though I *know* that longing for the future takes away enjoyment of the present, I still often find myself living in that place of longing for this to all be done, longing for what Fall *should* have been.

Still, reality stares me in the face when I go to work and don my mask in order to teach my energetic kindergartners. When I sit at my desk and face a screen full of 5th graders, and I am reminded once again: this is our current reality. As Alanis Morrisette famously said, the only way out is through, and this prompt from last year's innocent CWM team is actually perfect timing to remind me that there are still things to savor in this season.

Here's what I wrote:

"What I Want To Savor This Season"

-slow Saturdays and long runs

-hard work for the sake of self instead of praise

 -challenges of learning new things

-soup and stew and blankets and socks

-time to re-orient and re-think

-learning to lean into change

Thinking of savoring this season seems antithetical to me. There is so much that I want to change, that I wish were different than what it is. There is so much that I am still grieving for and longing for. But maybe I need this reminder to rejoice in seasons of lament. To lean in, to discover, to fully process the seasons of discomfort and discontent so that the seasons of joy will be even sweeter.

Savor: taste and enjoy completely. Perhaps this little reflection prompt is a reminder to take notice of the Lord's goodness through all of this, and to taste and enjoy His goodness completely. What moments, spaces, and times stand out to me as reminders of His goodness?

"O taste and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8 

As I think about this Fall and all the normal "Fall-ish things that won't be happening, and even the postponed from Spring things that still won't be happening, my mind starts to turn to what I CAN do. In the midst of chaos and heartache that seems unending, I remember that I am still leaving a legacy. My traditions will look different this year, and I have to change my mindset and teach myself that though there is loss and lament, there is also joy and rejoicing. 

 And always, always, always, there is the goodness of God.