S is for Seasons by Carol Harrison

 

“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Ecc. 3:1 NIV

There are seasons for various aspects of writing and in our lives in general. Spring evokes pictures of rebirth and renewal. In our writing this can be a time of gathering ideas, dropping them into the soil of written word and see what germinates. This spring, one of my daughters planted some sweet pea seeds into two different containers. One is still bare ground but the other has young plants growing up, reaching for the sun. So too some of our ideas will grow and develop while others will remain a seed of an idea.

Summer is a time for plants to grow and mature, to develop their produce. We water and weed, cultivate around them and prune what is unnecessary to help them have the best opportunity for full maturity. In our writing the summer season can be seen as the time of developing those ideas. Maybe, if we are writing a novel, we write outlines, character sketches, plot ideas, and check out the backstories we need to understand our characters and story line. It is a season of work to help our ideas become a story, devotional, poem, or essay.

In the fall we harvest our crops and garden produce. We can and freeze, cook and bake to come up with a finished product to enjoy. In our writing we need to take that finished manuscript and do the hard work of preparing it to go out to others. We tackle the dreaded task of editing. Pruning away unnecessary words and sentences, tightening up our characters, our wording, and our scenes. Then we can submit it for consideration or self publish a book. We see the rewards of the hard work of three seasons of writing life.

But then comes winter. It is a time of resting and waiting. The world lies dormant in the winter waiting for the warmth of spring In our writing and in life it can be a tough season where ideas seem to flee away and we don’t have the time or ability to work out other ideas we might have jotted down.

These writing seasons don’t necessarily coincide with the seasons of the calendar. They happen at various times. Right now the sun is shining and we are under a heat warning and yet in my writing and in my life, I am in a winter season filled with grieving and some health issues. Writing takes a back seat and very little gets accomplished. Ideas in my notebooks stay hidden away. Pieces already written or begun wait for a time I have the motivation to begin working on them once again.

It is a time where discouragement sets in easily as I look at what I am not accomplishing instead of remembering it is okay to have a time to rest and wait. God’s timing is always right on time and I just need to listen to his leading.

When the discouragement sets in during this winter season, I look at favourite Scripture passages like Isaiah 43: 1-3a NIV

1.     But now this is what the Lord says… “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

2.     When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you; and when you pass through the fire you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

 For I am the Lord our God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour…”

Even in this winter season a few ideas force their way to the surface. I jot them down and wait for spring to eventually come. 

Carol Harrison is not a gardener but has learned from listening to others talk about planting, growth, and harvesting enough to have some of it stick. She does enjoy reading at any season of life and spending time with family and friends.