Be Invested in Every Season

Have you ever been totally invested in something really, shall we say, unusual? For me this past couple of years it has been our frangipani tree. Invested, obsessed… same same.

The first year we lived in our rental was also the first time I had ever had a frangipani tree. When we moved in during summer, the tree was huge. It was actually taller than the house. It had beautiful lush green leaves everywhere, stunning white blossoms all over the tree, and falling flowers created a white velvet carpet leading to our front door.

Then came autumn. The flowers stopped blooming, the leaves turned and fell, and before I knew it my amazing tree was completely bare. I did not know that frangipanis lost their leaves so it shocked me. All winter I waited and I waited.

Googling Won’t Shortcut My Season

Spring came and all the other trees in the area began to bloom. The frangipani tree remained stubbornly, bleakly bare. I googled, I went on forums, I annoyed my sister-in-law in Queensland to try to work out if there was something wrong.

Finally, in late November, I noticed weird, purple, spiky-looking things at the end of the branches. Slowly they multiplied and produced leaves. By the beginning of January, the tree was once again covered in leaves and snow-white blossoms and was laying its fragrant carpet at our door.

My Seasons Don’t Look Like Everyone Else’s

If I learned anything while I was so invested in the frangipani tree’s growth cycle, I learned that its season was similar but not exactly the same as the other trees. It flourished and was dormant at the exact right time for itself, no amount of stressing or googling or questioning was going to make it happen any faster. Seasons come and go for trees and for us. We have to learn to make the most of the season we are in and not rush it chasing the next season.

All seasons happen for a reason, even the dormancy in winter prepares the plant, and us for the growing season. So wherever you find yourself today, be planted in your current season. Rest, grow, work, or bloom, whatever it is, trust that God has your seasons intricately planned and prepared.

Lorrene McClymont is a photographer and writer from South Australia. You can find her photography here.

You can follow her on Instagram here for photography or here for writing and thoughts about faith and life.