Jennifer's Spin: Turning 40 and the lesson of the blackberry

Jennifer's Spin: Turning 40 and the lesson of the blackberry: So I haven't posted anything in awhile and since it is the week of me turning 40 and becoming so much "wiser" and all...I thou...

Turning 40 and the lesson of the blackberry

So I haven't posted anything in awhile and since it is the week of me turning 40 and becoming so much "wiser" and all...I thought I should certainly post something meaningful.  As usual my life ebbs and flows in and out of chaos as I am struggling hard to figure out what God's plan for my life is at this time.  Birthdays have never bothered me because I have always believed that age was mental, however; I remember when my mother turned 40 and it was the first time that I was ever really aware of her age.  I thought 40 was old then and it is hard to reconcile that past thought with today's reality...which is the fact that 40 is 6 days away. Our society teaches us to measure our lives out in successes and failures and there is this imaginary scoreboard of wins and losses.  I am not where I thought I would be at 40.  I am still battling a weight issue and right now the weight is winning.  I have been somewhat stagnant in my career as I have been trying to discern what the next steps are for me.  I never feel that I am successful as a wife and mother.  I am always wishing that I could be more to my children and that I could give more of myself to my husband.  I have had all these thoughts really rolling around in my head because of the whole 40 thing and the strangest thing taught me the lesson I needed for this point and time and that lesson came from blackberries.

Consider the growth cycle of wild blackberries.  They start off as little flowers and then grow into little berry buds.  The weather has to get good and hot for them to start growing and turning their rich, dark color.  They actually thrive in humidity and heat.  The berries grow on a vine that wraps itself around thorns and thistle like weeds.  Their most brilliant time is in the most uncomfortable heat of the year and they must live among thorns, bees, birds and snakes.  It is really hard to kill off blackberries and the more you pick the year previous, the more you will have the next season.

We are like the blackberries.  We start off as little flowers and then we become buds that grow up among the thistles and thorns of this world.  Our best season is when the heat is on and while everything seems to be against our survival, we thrive!  Very little will take us out because God has made us so hardy and provides us strength to face all the difficulties along the way.  Each season that we grow, we become more, we become better.  While you cannot know for certain where you are in the cycle of your life, take it as a season.  Live well, love well, and focus on something other than the heat and the thorns.  Survival from season to season is a win...no matter what someone else's scoreboard says!