A Time for Everything by Barry Hughes

I have so enjoyed the beautiful fields of wildflowers that grace the park in my neighborhood during the spring and early summer. Day after day I have stopped on my walk and admired the colors. I have taken numerous pictures, and in fact used one of a red poppy lost in this particular sea of purple for a morning essay earlier in the pandemic.

Even though I knew this day would come, I was caught off-guard when I strolled upon the demise of the wildflower field on my morning walk today. My world looked very different. My world felt very different. Change can have that effect on us.

The philosopher of Ecclesiastes wrote, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” True words indeed. Nothing stays the same. Well, that may not be accurate. Let me try this again, nothing ALIVE stays the same.

Nineteen years ago I moved into a house with a large, fantastic lot. Beautiful towering trees shaded a lawn of thick, well established grass. The previous owners, who bought the house new in 1972, were serious gardeners. The back yard was well planted, with something blooming all the time. I enjoyed not having to create this oasis, but I enjoyed maintaining it very much.

But my favorite aspect of this place was the greenhouse. It was my routine to spend part of my Friday each week in this little bit of glassed paradise. It was interesting to grow plants from the tiniest sprout to robust splendor to the end of their season, all the while watching the changes each step of the way. It was fun to transfer them to beds in the yard or into baskets to hang or into bigger pots to see how big they might grow. But nothing stayed the same. Nothing remained unchanged.

Growth is change. Learning is change. Life itself is a journey of change. Each new experience changes us. People who come into our life bring about change. People leaving our life, for whatever reason, changes us. Some change is welcome, some change breaks our hearts. Sometimes we work for change, sometimes we fight change with a fierce and angry passion. But nothing stops change. It is the way the Creator set up the universe. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

The change of season for my beloved wildflowers has me thinking that perhaps it is time that I begin to see change as opportunity. Perhaps I need to look at change through questions such as “what new thing is beginning?” and “what does the new season hold that is exciting and full of possibility?” Look at that! Maybe I’ve begun to change already!

Peace.