Hubby and I were recently away at a small seaside town, and while we were moseying through a little café/shop at the marina we noticed on the community bulletin board a flyer for the local high school Spring Musical Theater Production.
Looking at the dates we realized we were in town the weekend of the performance. And since we didn’t have anything else planned, we decided to go to it.
That evening we drove over to the local high school and joined the crowds of excited teens, along with their parents and grandparents and friends. The high school auditorium was abuzz with youthful excitement and energy!
It was a highly entertaining event. And it was a lot of fun to be around the teens who were so full of hopes and dreams and plans for the future! So much youthful exuberance!
The very next weekend hubby and I and our daughter drove down to the local arena in town and spent the whole day at a business conference. The conference was about how to make a Kingdom Impact in our daily workplace. It was amazing! Highly recommend! (check it out at – www.lifesurge.com )
Here you can see Damond John and Robert Herjavec (from the TV show “Shark Tank”) speaking to us.
Also at the event we heard from The Benham Brothers (amazing presentation about Worship, Wisdom, Wealth, & Work … and how these all tie together in our life). Marcus Lemonis did not speak to us from the stage but rather walked the aisles of the arena the entire hour of his presentation as he talked to us. It was an amazing learning session!
Sage Steele spoke to us about choosing the “harder right” – from the Cadet Prayer (“Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won.”) Tim Tebow shared a powerful message about God’s presence and power in our life as we work for God’s Kingdom.
This business conference, while full of energy and enthusiasm, was mostly attended by those in mid-life or retired. The whole vibe of the event was much more mellow than the high school production the week prior.
I can’t help but think how every season of life is beautiful. The youthful exuberance of the high school years is beautiful. And the mellowed older years are also beautiful.
“God has made everything beautiful in its time.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11
“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1
The rhododendrons are blooming right now … and the blooms are such a perfect picture of this concept of “mellowing with age.”
Just out from my kitchen window are rhodies which we originally purchased with the expectation that they would be yellow-blooming rhodies. But what is fascinating is that when the blooms are first getting ready to open up, they don’t look yellow at all. Check it out … the brand-new blooms look like they are going to be an intense pink-peach color.
Then as the blooms open all the way up, they mellow into a paler pinky-peach-ish shade.
As the blooms age a bit more, the color mellows even more.
Until right near the end of the bloom time the color is a very pale yellow. (it’s washed out in the photo, but in person it’s a very distinct pale-yellow color)
Isn’t this the way life is? We start out in life with so much youthful vibrance and energy! Just like the youthful enthusiasm of the high school kids at the Spring Musical performance, and just like the bold, vibrant color of the just-opening blooms. There are so many hopes and dreams and ambitions!
Then we go through our college years and enter the workforce … and we mellow a bit. (like the second photo of the rhodie blooms) There’s still some vibrant color, but it’s mellowing out.
Then life takes its toll on us, and our youthful exuberance dissipates. Our vitality fades. Our energy diminishes. At mid-life, just like most of the attendees at the business conference, our “blooms” have mellowed out to a pale yellow, yet still showing some distinct traces of color here and there.
Then we reach our older years … and all the color and vitality of youth is gone. We have now mellowed into a pale yellow.
With the bear raiding the hummingbird feeder this week, this is such an example of this. This bear is obviously in the younger years of its life. It has youthful energy to do something daring. It has youthful energy to climb up on people’s decks, right up in their brightly lit windows to gobble up sugary goodness.
There is another, different neighborhood bear which is much more mellow. When hubby and I first purchased our home in the forest, the former owners (who built the house back in the ’80’s) told us about this neighborhood bear and how years ago they named him “Boo Boo” (after the sidekick in the tv cartoon “Yogi Bear”). Boo Boo is very mellow. He doesn’t do daring bold things. He stays out of sight. He keeps to himself. He’s in his older years and his youthful energy has mellowed.
Every stage of life is beautiful!
Hubby and I would not be having all this entertaining drama with the hummingbird feeders if it wasn’t for youthful exuberance and energy!
And speaking of the hummingbird feeders, the hummingbird babies have recently flown the nest and are now coming to the feeders. You can tell because they are perfectly fine sharing the feeder together.
Every stage of life is beautiful!
“God has made everything beautiful in its time.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11
“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1
And so we pray: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12
No matter what stage of life we find ourselves in, we pray for God to give us wisdom so that we can live wisely and make the most of this season of life … all for God’s honor and glory!
