The Shifting Seasons of Life
Feb 25, 2025
The Wonder of …
Shifting Seasons of Life
Opportunities to embrace change
In this Autumn issue of Heartlands for Women, the keynote speaker for the Day of Wonder Melissa Lipsett, considers the wonder and magnitude of life’s seasons.
You can easily miss Autumn in Queensland where I live – it’s nowhere near as dramatic as further south in Australia. I imagine Tassie is glorious in Autum and can’t wait to be there in March. A few years ago, I was in Canada during the northern hemisphere fall. It was so beautiful to see the leaves changing colour and dropping to make a glorious carpet, and I was reminded of just how much changes during Autumn.
Although it’s over 38 degrees as I write – a hot, humid summer’s day – I’m in an Autumn season. My husband and I have five* frail and rapidly failing, parents and stepparents between us. They’ve been healthy and able well into their eighties, but that season is turning quickly. The changes in their health, wellbeing and circumstances have been significant and profound. In some cases, changes have happened at such lighting speed it’s been difficult to fully recognise and appreciate the implications until they literally stopped us all in our tracks.
We’ve all had to make considerable adjustments to our living arrangements. This includes my husband and myself as we moved interstate to provide assistance. These last months have been chaotic as we dealt with one crisis after another. Possibly, some of this chaos was caused by our failure to recognise the inevitable changes and act sooner.
Recognising Opportunities
The natural world seamlessly recognises when one season is over and it’s time for another to begin. Let me suggest we would do well to do the same. But just like it’s easy to miss autumn in Queensland, it’s easy to miss the opportunity to embrace change.
It’s good to see it before it either overtakes us and leaves us feeling out of control, or we find ourselves entirely stuck in a place that’s far from healthy. Either way, it can be difficult to find the courage. Sometimes it feels more comfortable to resist and stay right where we are, no matter the consequences!
Being swept along in inevitable change is uncomfortable. But being stuck in an unhealthy place or season is dreadfully painful too. There is likely little joy in your life if you’re swept along in change you are not prepared for. So too, there is no joy being stuck in an expired season.
My Refuge
Psalm 91:2 encourages me that, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ So, I am trying to do two things. Anticipate and embrace changing seasons, even if they are challenging and not what I hoped for. And pray I might find the courage to trust in God. Both to hold me, and to lead me forward, in the midst of the challenge.
Melissa Lipsett is the CEO of Baptist World Aid. She is a servant leader, playing active roles across the church and Christian humanitarian aid and development sector. She’s definitely old enough to be a grandma … but that’s another story!
*Sadly, since writing this article Melissa lost her father in early February.
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