“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” – Holy Bible, Book of Ecclesiastes 3:1
A few months ago I had been really unwell, so I went to see my GP about this horrible cold which I did not seem to be able to get rid of. After listening to my symptoms, and examining me, she smiled and said: “You need to take a week off your mummy duties. In fact, what you need, is to do nothing for 3 days, and you’ll be fixed.” So a few days later, I followed her advice. I cancelled everything in my diary, and sent my daughter to her grandma’s. My husband was at work, and I was sitting at home, doing absolutely nothing.
A couple of hours went by, and a friend texted and offered to come and visit. I was very grateful for the offer, but replied that there was no need, and wrote the words: “I’m really valuing the peace and quiet and solitude.”
As I wrote, I realised that a few years ago, sitting at home, all alone, doing nothing, would have been my worst nightmare. I would have had itching feet. I would have wanted to go out, meet people, do things, chat. To sit alone would have bored me to death. I would have started feeling lonely and pining for a man in my life; pining for a family. But now, a little bit of alone-time is not only doctor’s orders, it is actually hugely enjoyable. I was loving sitting and catching up with my thoughts, resting. I was loving being alone with myself.
Seasons change. They come and they go. I’m thinking I want to value, appreciate and enjoy each season in my life. I want to go back and tell the young single Katerina to resist feeling lonely and pining for a man. I want to tell her to take advantage of all that free time instead! To get to know herself better. Get to know her God, her gifts and her dreams and goals. To learn about the things she dreams about, to enjoy being herself and to get comfortable in her own skin!
That season has now ended for me, and my time is filled with taking care of the people I love the most: my husband and my little girl. And I can’t help but think that in this current season, I need to enjoy the chaos, the noise, the constant activity; I need to enjoy the precious moments of watching my little one face- paint herself, or climb up her tower and pretend to be a princess, or compose cute little songs and then translate them from English to Greek. Because in another few years, she’ll be gone: off on her own adventure. And I will have time to be alone again.
How important it is to be content with each season. To live in it without pining for the next one, or the previous one. To enjoy every thing in its time. Just like the writer of Ecclesiastes explains.
As this new year sets in, I am thinking I want to be acutely aware of which season I’m in. I want to enjoy it, get all I can out of it, and give all I can into it. I want to move into the next season with the knowledge that I did my best to live in the moment I was in, took the opportunities I was presented with, and blessed lots of people on the way. I think that’s the way to live. Surely, it must be.
