Marking the End of Seasons

 

For the past few years, we have had the opportunity to use a pool that is open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Our kids love to swim so it has been our tradition in these years to be one of the last families out of the pool on Labor Day. Just how long can we make this season last, we ask ourselves as the shadows move over the pool. Then it is finally time to go and we head home from the pool for the last time that year. It is a time of transition between seasons. When we get home, I take a few extra minutes to clean out the swim bag (pro tip: IKEA bags make the best swim bags), putting away the sunscreen and hats, clearing out the leaves and wrappers. My husband asked why I take the time to do that routine in that moment. The practical answer is that when we swim the rest of the year, we do it indoors and we don’t need all the same things.

But the real answer runs deeper in my soul. It is a finishing of the season. It is a moment to put away, but also a moment to be thankful for a season well lived. It is a recognition of an end. As a society we seem excited for the next season, whatever that may be, but we don’t take as much time to think about the season we are letting go. Taking the time for this small physical ritual helps my heart with the more soulful feelings about the passing of time. To mark the end is just as necessary for my soul as it was to celebrate the beginning.

Summer is a hard season for me to let go. We live in a climate that has a short window of summer weather. I adore summer weather. Summer always feels too short. The ending of summer means shorter, darker days. It can mean my soul feels darker, too. But if I mark the ending and finish out my season by putting away and reflecting on the season, not to be sad that it is over, but to be grateful it was lived, I can let it go a whole lot easier.

In a few weeks I will change out the clothes in my kids’ dressers. I will make room for sweaters, setting aside the shorts. Not only does this ritual keep their rooms clean, their clothes easier to find, it helps me to process the passing of time. They may not wear these clothes again next year. It is as much spiritual organization as much as it is physical organization.

I have learned that if I take these moments to finish the small seasons, these yearly rhythms well, that I am better at processing much bigger life transitions between seasons. Our youngest child began Kindergarten last week. This is a big, exciting new season for her and our family. My parenting workload is undergoing a shift it hasn’t seen in years. I have been marking the end of the season of babies at home. I have done physical things to mark the end of the season, this summer I dropped my work and went to play outside as often as I could. And I have marked the end in my soul with much thinking and journaling about the last decade. It was 10 years well lived and I am grateful. My soul just needed to sit with those feelings and it could because of my small practices over time of marking the end of seasons. Seasons will always come and go, may our souls find comfort as they do.