Rest and Rest
Hi friends! We are more than half way through January, can you believe it? I hope that you all have been doing well and are staying warm and safe as the winter weather continues to intensify. This winter season is causing a lot of us to pause and be more cautious. It may even demand that we rethink our plans and hold off on participating in certain activities until we reach warmer weather. I've often heard that winter shows us how beautiful it is to let the dead things go, and it wasn't until recently that I really reflected on this. Allowing ourselves to just let things be juxtaposed to the hustle and bustle that society places on everyone in the new year.
In October, the temperature begins to drop, the leaves change colors and fall off the trees, animals begin to migrate and prepare for hibernation, the bugs thankfully die, and we all begin to prepare for the holiday stretch and vacation days. Nature comes to a pause and reveals the beauty of resting and resetting. Somewhere along the way, someone convinced us all that January was the perfect time to begin new ventures and to make big changes. It almost seems unnatural with the flow of nature to make so many changes at the start of the year. Maybe that's the reason many people struggle with keeping their new year's resolutions in January, this is the time to observe and reflect. Don't beat yourself up if you don't have a plan for the year yet, I truly believe it will come in time. Just as the flowers bloom and the leaves return in the spring, you still have time to figure things out. Allow yourself space to relax and surrender to the natural flow of things, despite what everyone is doing around you. Do not allow yourself to be rushed out of season into a commitment that you aren't ready to keep. This causes you to be out of alignment with the timing of your life. Being out of alignment creates disappointment, frustration, and confusion. When it is time for you to move forward in what God has for you the disillusionment of what didn't work is there to cloud your judgement and cause you not to move forward or give up before it was even your time. I think the enemy loves to have us distracted by frustrations or disappointments that weren't even ours to carry in the first place because we weren't in alignment.
I have a plant that began to die last year. Everyday I would check it and noticed that leaves were dying from the plant no matter what I did. I tried everything from watering it, not watering it, giving it more sun, removing it from the sun, repotting it, to changing the soil. Nothing seemed to work. Eventually every part of the plant died until there was literally just a pot left with dirt. About a month later, I noticed that some very small green leaves were starting to peek through the soil and eventually they continued to grow up and produce additional healthy leaves. Now the plant even has flowers! I remember being in awe of the transformation from literal death to life and the revival of what I thought was completely destroyed. Sometimes in life, things happen in cycles. You don't know what lies beneath the surface of a situation that you presume is dying, unproductive, or unexpected. Sometimes doing more is actually counterproductive and was never going to work in the first place. Some things really require you to throw your hands up and surrender to the flow. Even when things look like they are over and at their end, you never know what is growing beneath the surface. I still believe there is so much more for you in 2024, but now is the time to rest and reset. Allow things to take their natural flow. This year you will be patient and not rush things before their time. This year you won't be distracted by frustration due to a lack of trust in God working everything in divine timing. This year you will trust the timing of this season of your life and now that it is good and perfect.
-xoxo Alyssa
