16: Summer is here!

We've finally made it to summer and the long days that come with it.  On today's episode we talk about how summer really is the beginning of abundance and harvest and a really important time to focus on creativity and passion projects.  It's also a great time to look at what's working well this year - especially with seeds you planted this Spring - and making sure that those seeds will reap a harvest through the Fall.  Pay attention to what the sun and warmth are showing you - there's a reason God made these days longer so you can get out and experience it all.  Test the waters.  Try new things. Run through the flower fields that you planted and just enjoy your time together.  

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Transcript

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Welcome to Seasons with Purpose, where we have honest conversations about how seasons of all types show up in our lives and how we can walk into and through them with intention so that we don't miss any of the moments that matter most. Hello, Pod Squad, and welcome to episode 16 of the Seasons with Purpose Podcast. We're so excited you're here, and it's finally in the northern hemisphere, summer. This past Saturday was the summer solstice. So every season change called a solstice or equinox. I'll do a full episode on what God teaches us in those weather seasons, some things to think about as you go into them, and things to be aware of in the next few months that you might not have paid attention to otherwise. My goal is just that it serves as a simple reminder of the goodness to come, and there's so much goodness in every season. I promise. Even if you hate the heat, there is goodness in summer and the rest and abundance of the season. So we're here today to chat about summer, and it's just me. I know we've had a few, quite a few weeks of awesome guests on the pod. Um, but each of these weather season episodes um will just be me. So it's just you and me today. I hope wherever you're driving or sitting, I hope you're sitting and relaxing on a beach. If you're not and you're driving and in a stressful situation, I also hope that you're enjoying it and I'm thrilled to be with you. So, summer I've learned now that we've gotten through quite a few episodes, many of my listeners and guests, it's their favorite weather season, and I understand why. I'm a July baby. I literally thought growing up that the fireworks were, you know, a celebration of my birthday until the harsh reality that it was actually for the country. But it's the memories that come from summer just seem to be more relaxed and full and abundant, is the word you're gonna hear me use a lot today. I describe summer as passion and abundance. It's a time to relish in time together and focus on the things that you love, maybe a little bit more creativity or your passions, and then the ability to see the abundance in whatever you're doing. If I think about childhood summers, I think about just simplicity. It was just a simple time. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so obviously it's so much more simple than our kids have to deal with in the summer, and I didn't have technology to entertain me, but I just think of it as simple. Once it got dark, we'd walk and find fireflies and catch them and sit in the field and look at the stars and just simple things like that that when I look back and remember it just bring me such joy and comfort and feels really comfortable and beautiful. When you think of summer in your childhood, what do you think of? What's the thing that first comes to your mind about summer? I hope it's a good, abundant or passionate memory. At Seasons with Purpose, or SWP, as I'm starting to call it, more on that later. We call summer a time of growth, success, and abundance. As spring blossoms into summer, we experience a surge of energy and vitality. The grass is as green as it will get. Flowers and plants, like cut flowers, my favorite, are in full bloom, and the world feels a bit more alive and thriving, right? We're freer to explore and just be out in nature much more than other seasons. And we expect and plan in the time outside so much more than any other season. Even spring and fall. Summer just is a time where people obviously are much more outside, but you almost plan the things you're doing and your intentionality should be around being outside and being in nature. From a spiritual perspective, summer encourages us to explore our passions and creativity, whether through your favorite creative thing or physical activity that you can do outside, minds being on the water like any water sport, and we're paddleboarding with my daughter, or deepening relationships. The warmth of the sun symbolizes illumination. It's a time for clarity and revelation. Many people find that their intuition is heightened during summer, making it an ideal time for self-discovery or focus on things that you need to redo, or you might be able to see it more clearly in the summer when you have a bit of a rest and can focus more on the creative side of that problem or opportunity or something coming into your life. Some of my favorite phrases about summer are the dog days of summer, which I can only imagine references the pure joy of dogs playing in the water. I'm not sure. Or being outside, how happy dogs feel to be outside, which is then applied to people. I'm not sure where that phrase comes from, but that's a good one. And then another one I say I've heard a lot is fun in the sun and endless summer. I really resonate with endless summers because I feel, especially as a parent in public schools, that summers are shortening and so many people are moving to year-round schools. At least for the millennial generation of parents, I still really resonate with the phrase endless summers, where the days were long and at times felt endless, like we could do whatever we wanted. I was telling my kids the other day, they know obviously we're we as millennial parents are preaching to them about how different our childhood was. But those summer days literally we'd get on our bike and leave the house at some point in the morning whenever our neighbors' friends came to pick us up and be out all day. Like, I don't know if we ate lunch. We probably didn't. We'd ride bikes, we'd go swimming in this little fishing hole behind one of my best friends' houses. We'd spend hours there. We would go to the park, just like play at the park. Even as teenagers, even when we were older, we would go and hang out there and it did. It just felt endless. Just overall, I can't talk about summer without thinking of Olaf in Frozen. In summer. Anyway, raising two girls, I can confidently say that we had a full season. You could call it a full season of Frozen in our house. And we sang a lot of those songs, and it's one of my favorites. Anyway, for most of the world, it's it's the time everyone takes more vacation and are urged to take a break from the chaos. After living in Europe for a few years, I was fully ready to embrace the summer holiday that most Europeans take, which is multiple weeks in August, where literally everyone is off traveling and soaking up the sun in the Mediterranean or seeing the world. It's just understood that everyone does it for weeks, not just long weekends like we do in America, where we think that's a great break and such a refreshing break. It's not enough. And I love how the Europeans embrace true break and they call it holiday. And it is true time away that's almost planned in and expected, even in the business world. It's expected that they're off for that time. And what a beautiful recognition that that's um needed. It's Sabbath, right? We can debate how Sabbath translates to our lives a lot, but that is what Sabbath was intended to do. And yes, the Bible says we should do it once a week, but a planned in scheduled time, just like seasons and and or in a season change, a Sabbath is just as important and shows up in the same way to me. If we get into it, like some of the really deep concepts about summer, summer can represent a season of growth after waiting, joy after endurance, abundance after planting, and rest that renews us for the next season. The next season is fall. We're still moving, we're still doing a lot, we're still getting ready for harvest. There is harvest in the summer, but we're still getting ready and doing in the summer, but it's more, it's full of passion and creativity more than in the fall when we're just actually reaping our harvest and doing the work to harvest. I would say summer is a season of harvest. Cut flowers are growing now, lots of things, squash, watermelons actually harvest in the summer. And I like to call it fruitfulness because it's usually fruit. In biblical times, summer was closely tied to gathering crops and recognizing the results of labor. In Genesis 822, it says, as long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. It will keep going. There will be seasons, there will be outputs of the seasons. Um, and that should and is intended to feel like abundance from the work you did planting. Summer represents a rhythm God built into creation, planting, growing, and eventually gathering. Some seasons are for planting, others are for seeing fruit from what has been cultivated. And summer really is that. For those of you who are gardeners, you know there is tons of fruit that is harvested and thrives in the summer. And I think that's intentional. Summer teaches preparation and wisdom. One of the clearest summer references in the Bible is about using the seasons wisely. Proverbs 10, verse 5 says, He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, is great. But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. Meaning, when we get to the growing or growth phase or harvest, we have to do the work to harvest what we've planted. When we get to that phase after planting, it's not just a time of ease and relaxation. It's a time and a window almost of opportunity. Pay attention to the seasons where doors are open. Preparation today creates provision later. God will provide the harvest if it's meant to be, if it's part of your plan, it will be harvested, but you have to put the work in to harvest the things you planted. Don't let it pass you by. Jesus literally says that brings shame because he's given you all of the things you need. He's given you the seeds to plant that. And the harvest is your job. And I think there's so much goodness in the harvest of our life and seeing clearly the work payoff, I guess is a way of saying it. And he literally says he will provide the seeds. And he then expects us to go gather the crop. Said another way, pay attention to what you're learning now. Did you plant too much this spring and now you're drowning? Or you know harvest time will be overwhelming and unsustainable. Shout out to those who plant zucchinis usually. Are people feel like they're drowning in the harvest? It's just so many. Cucumbers occasionally show up that way. If you answered yes to that question, did you plant too much this spring and now you're drowning? Fix it, bro. Do the work, act now during the growth before you miss the opportunity in the harvest. The harvest is where you see how that comes to life. If you feel like it's too much, then scale back. Um, you can scale back next spring season, or you can scale back now. You can fix it now, or you can share, but don't miss the learnings. Pay attention to what you're learning now. He puts you there on purpose. And in the harvest is the, I think, the clearest time to see some of those things. Jesus referenced the changing of seasons as a way to talk about spiritual awareness in Luke 12, verses 54 to 56. It says, When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, a shower is coming. You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky. But how is it that you do not know how to interpret the present time? And in Luke 21, he continues, look at the fig tree and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that summer is near. God invites us so often to notice and look around in the season we're in, not just physically, but spiritually. He actually says, Do you not know how to interpret the present time? I put you here. I put you here on purpose. I believe you should have all the things to know what to do now. Does it mean we noticed all of them? No, we're all not paying attention to the right thing sometimes. But he does say, Do you know how to interpret the present time? Meaning, I put you there for a reason. Look around, pay attention, don't miss this. I'm showing you something. So pay attention. Summer can also symbolize maturity and ripeness. A crop reaching harvest means something has grown to completion. When you're in a summer phase, you have reached growth or feel a bit like you've made it. You set a goal and achieved it, and now soon get to see the fruit, or you are seeing the fruit of all the seeds you planted. The Bible often uses fruit as a picture of character. In Galatians 5, we learn about the fruits of the spirit, defined as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Some seasons are meant to produce fruit in us: patience, wisdom, faith, love. If you can focus on these things this summer, I encourage you to overdo it. Soak in the slower days with patience. Give and show more love than normal. Share some wisdom in the last season you've completed and grew from. I think that brings us to some things that we can really focus on for this summer. And I just mentioned kind of my favorite. What if we focus on what God is producing in us? Patience, wisdom, faith, and love. Soak in those things. Overdo the love. Overdo the patience. Okay. Give people grace. More than normal, it's a time when you feel passionate and you're in abundance. Humans are generally better at that. Um, and I just think it's time to embrace it. The long days of sunlight, like long, long days, are I think a reminder to embrace joy and express ourselves fully. Like, go out and do the things. Get outside. Don't hold back the summer. Find a creative outlet. I recommend one outside, like gardening or chalk painting, and go all out. Invite friends to join you. Embrace your creativity. Just embrace all of it and live and thrive in the fruits that have been planted and are being presented as harvest this summer. Thank you for joining us today. I hope you loved this conversation. Cheers to whatever season you are in. May you thrive in it with purpose and intention. If you've made mistakes in this season, learn from them and start again tomorrow. I'm rooting for you. Go be great today and see you here next week.