On a recent afternoon, I walked with my daughter and we marveled at the bright colors of spring. California poppies, daisies, red poppies, and a hundred other flowers I don’t know the name of waved to us in the cool breeze with bright colors that almost shouted beauty at us.
We turned the corner into a rose garden and I was brought to tears. Every color of the rainbow (except blue, of course) was portrayed in thousands of blooms across hundreds of rose bushes. We had decided to visit this rose garden during the exact week when everything blooms. We’ve visited this garden a hundred times. We’ve seen blooms here and there, but never every bush blooming together with all the bright colors.
Next month the rose garden is not going to look like it does right now. This is its season of blooming. The garden creates a sense of awe and wonder, but next month, it will just be a collection of rose bushes.
The rose doesn’t concern itself with the fact that it won’t be blooming forever. It blooms to the best of its ability and then it retreats until it is time to bloom again.
I realized how similar this is to my life and motherhood. I have seasons where I bloom efficaciously. I have ideas and time and energy that I can’t wait to spread to the world. And then after that season, I need to retreat. Maybe I’m tired from the blooming, maybe we have a new baby, maybe life circumstances just changed. Whatever it is, I can’t bloom all the time.
When I’m in this season of retreat, I always look at those who are blooming and wish I was there. If only I had more time, more sleep, more help around the house, more money, I could do those things. I could bloom like those other women.
But I’m not supposed to. It’s not my season. God will give me my season. Just like the rose doesn’t bloom all year or the pomegranate only blossoms in the fall, I too have a season for blooming and I have a season for retreat and rest.
I need to remember to allow myself to rest when I am in those seasons and stop comparing myself to the other flowers who are in full bloom.