There is still beauty to be found in the ashes of summer’s ending, these dying back days when flowers lose their lustre. There is a tendency for us to fade with them in sympathy with summer’s passing, as we ache inside at the dimming of the light.

We might grieve a season’s closure, a period when life seemed bright and happy but is fast becoming a distant memory. Sadness can pervade all too swiftly when good times end and we get caught up in busyness.

My summer passed in a blur of unusual activity where I was overly preoccupied with the tasks before me, namely supporting my spouse’s post-op recovery. It’s still an ongoing process because of the setbacks he has endured and how much his progress has been slowed.

I mourn the months I feel I’ve missed, those lazy, leisurely days we cannot get back again for a while. I miss sun’s warmth, long evenings and length of days. And I could easily become stuck in a groove of grumbling, unless I make a conscious effort to consider how beginning again is available to us 24/7, any day, any month, any year.

God is the God of the Now. He reveals Himself through a series of This Moment moments which echo His presence with us. If we fail to pause and absorb the lessons last season (or even yesterday) has been teaching us, we also retain the weight of it, those burdens God is asking us to relinquish to Him.

Moving on and moving forward is only possible if we have arms wide open to receive the new, hearts ready and receptive and minds aligned with God’s will.

In moving on from one season to the next, it helps to remember how new life comes cyclically in creation and our lives mirror the morphing it represents.

Death is always a precursor to the new. Leaves shrivel into crispness, flowers lose their bloom as they fade and die, and plants need to be pliant while they switch between new roots and shoots or a necessary dying back season.

It’s reassuring to our restless souls to believe in new life springing up at a time of God’s choosing. As we sow seeds of faith for the future, we are sowing into a bountiful harvest to come, invisible as it may be for now.

Joy is a seed which needs to take root in good soil. If we are still digging around in yesterday’s detritus, meandering in its mess, we are not well placed to see and sense joy’s presence in the here and now. And that’s reason enough to relinquish each day to God, so we can begin to embrace all the new, joy-filled things that lay before us.

Welcome to #day2 of 31 days of journeying into joy. It’s good to have you here! I am no expert in this topic, but I am hoping we can learn together about how to have more joy in our lives.

How are the changing seasons speaking to you? Please share in the comments below.