Apologies if you, like me, are a bit of an arachnophobe. I promise there will be no pictures of God’s little eight-legged critters on this page. But it is, indeed, spider season.
Before I moved to Ohio from Texas, I always wondered why these creatures are associated with Halloween. In Texas, they are as ever-present as the heat. It took moving to a climate with actual seasons to understand that some living beings, such as the spider, come and go, in season or out of it. And this time of year is definitely the in-season.
Here in Ohio we are just now beginning to experience the weather shift that moves us from summer into Fall. Summer’s heat is glorious, partly because I know it will eventually give way to the autumn chill. Which will give way to a barren landscape in preparation for Spring’s bounty.
The change of seasons can be a helpful metaphor for understanding our own lives. It is an apt image for moving from childhood into adulthood into middle age into the winter of life. It’s also helpful to acknowledge that we can be in different “seasons” in different areas of our lives. Creatively, I’m emerging from a winter season, looking forward to the promise of spring in the form of new ideas and new energies. As a parent, I’m preparing my youngest to fly the coop, which is feeling a lot like Fall to me. I’m also in the process of shedding a previously important identity, and that is feeling like a move into the barrenness of winter.
I think it’s important to take stock of the seasons because there is nothing more frustrating than trying to force things out of season. I’m no gardener, so I’ll say this tentatively: planting seeds at the end of Fall is mostly a waste of time. Just as forcing creative energy in a winter season is likely to leave you frustrated at best. Knowing the season helps us know when to rest and when to work. Or when to prepare to rest and prepare to work. It also helps us acknowledge productive times won’t last forever, just as creatively dry times don’t either.
So maybe take some time today to think about the different areas of your life and what season you are in. And what markers, like the spider or the snowdrop, might help you determine that?