Part of the balance and walking the road that rises to meet us is about finding the rhythm of creation and the creator, as Lewis might say the “deep magic”. The seasons help by bringing with them their own sense of timing and rhythm, mirroring the great consistent narrative current, we see through the bible and history. This current of birth, life, mistakes, redemption, and rebirth, is echoed in the seasons. Perhaps in the westernised world where food is no longer attached to seasons, and we have lost touch with the soil, we have have become too dislocated from this narrative. We live in a society that shields and sanitizes death, sees it as something to be dealt with quickly, hidden from children and disconnected from life. Christ broke the wall between life and death, and it no surprise that when Jesus sent out the 72 in Luke 10 they could proclaim the good news before the crucifixion had even happened. Sayings like ‘life goes on’ although true, are meant in way that suggests the wall between life and death is still there, rather than seeing death as a part of the great redemptive story that connects us all; living, present and resurrected, a world beyond the walls that christ already brought to dust.

As we reconnect with the seasons the reality of the great redemptive rhythm and drumbeat of (re)creation is brought to bear. The small differences in weather, in festivals, in short or longs days can help us be embraced by the consistent narrative current of God, swept up by the swell, and carried beyond the walls that divide us. We can use them practically to helps bring the type of balance I was trying to convey in the previous post, as signposts and staging for the deeper magic that lies beyond. The seasons help us connect with one another, in ways that call the walls to dust, they can become sledge hammers in our hands that help break through, or like water dripping slowly wear away resistance, so we can embrace one anothers humanity. The road that rises to meet us is this redemptive current, and the seasons play a part in alerting us to its possibilities.