Not everything is sustainable in our lives. Sometimes we do something unsustainable for a season. We can absolutely enjoy what we’re doing but also know it’s limited to a block of time. It adds more to our schedule, and while we willingly or unwillingly yield to the change, we know we can’t maintain it. There will come a time, intentionally or not, when we cannot squeeze it where it no longer fits. Perhaps it’s limited to an actual season of the year. Weather won’t allow it to continue. Perhaps it’s limited by the organization of it. The schedule involves a group of people who won’t set aside the time once the last scheduled event has come and gone. Perhaps it’s limited because of growth. For example, the infant stage of parenting will not last forever.

We cannot freeze time. We cannot pause seasons. But we can appreciate and savor the seasons we’re in, even when we know they will not last forever.

Savoring can seem intense at times, and it can push or pull us in misleading ways. When we savor something we enjoy, we want more. That’s not a bad thing unless we allow it to become a quagmire that holds us back from moving forward. We shouldn’t stay where we shouldn’t be. Absolutely soak in the beauty for as long as intended, but know the beauty we experience is primarily due to the context. When the context changes, we can deceive ourselves into believing nothing changed, primarily to keep ourselves or others in a comfort zone.

We can also move on prematurely, because we don’t want to savor the season. It’s too sour or bitter. We need a refreshing drink for clarity. But how clear will we be as we look back on a season if we didn’t sit in it for the time we need for it to affect our lives, teach us lessons, provide us warnings, heal our wounds?

We want to believe savoring is always positive, but it has two meanings: (1) to taste and enjoy completely, and (2) to have a trace of something bad. The good or bad, positive or negative isn’t what defines what we savor. It’s the tasting, the experience. And our experiences are going to come and go, sometimes by choice and sometimes not. What we learn in them and from them is what will influence our next experiences. If we don’t honestly take from one experience, if we rush it or stretch it too far, if we deceive ourselves and others with our recollections, we taint the next season. We don’t have what we need—in our relationships, responses, interactions, and choices.

Savor the now. Anticipate the next. Appreciate the yesterday. Step into tomorrow. It’s never a straight-line, metronome-paced trajectory.

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