The cicada’s call cut clear and sharp through the still night air.
The boys started school this week. For the first time, all three of my boys are in school. We sent the youngest off with some hesitation but mostly excited for him to experience all the good school brings. He had a great first day, As they all did. He is making friends and doing everything associated with that beautiful time called kindergarten.
It has made me contemplate the changing time, the seasons of our life, and the natural flow of our world. As summer ends, we settle into a new and different routine than we enjoyed over the past three months. We spent the majority of the summer camping. Which meant we were always very close. And we were traveling. As with all good things, summer has come to an end. This means we are done camping for the season. But that doesn’t mean we will forget any of the experiences we had. We will carry them with us.
We carry many things with us in life. Whether we are always conscious of it or not, we are always collecting things. It is what we do with these things we collect that matters. You have many skills and strengths that may be hidden from you—figuring out how to unlock them. How to use them to reach your full potential is the challenging part.
As we are in the changing season, it reveals in stark contrast the physical, intellectual, and emotional changes we each go through. The green of summer fades to yellow, orange, and brown as life prepares to insulate through the long winter. Fall is a great time to take stock of what you have accomplished during the year and prepare your goals for next year.
As much as I lament summer coming to an end, the autumn season holds a special place in my heart. The humid heat gives way to crisp fall air. I feel that this time of year, perhaps more than any other, is ripe with possibilities. It is a season of preparation and planning.
It is the perfect time to start your new endeavor during these transitions, as it marks a unique place in the year. You can look back a year from now and see all your progress.
It is easy to feel like it is too late to start on your passion project. Like you somehow missed the starting bell, that you are too far behind, you will never catch up. But like the seasons, life is cyclical, giving you a new start if you are willing to take it. There is no beginning and end point when you are allowed to follow after your dreams, only seasons. And each season is a great time to make a change for the better.
Don’t assume you are starting from square one with any new endeavor you set your mind to. You have a trove of experience that can benefit you if you can unlock it. Think about times in your life when you had to use skills that could help you attain your goals. Patience, determination, organization, endurance, planning, foresight, problem-solving, reflection, and flexibility.
An excellent place to start is to write your idea down. Getting an idea down on paper (or, more likely, on your phone’s notes app) can work like magic to start you in the process of change. Somehow it takes your idea from an intangible thing and makes it real. It gets the idea out of your head and puts it into the world. Which helps you believe you can achieve it and keeps you accountable for taking steps to complete it.
Thanks for reading,
Nathan