I’ve been waiting for this for six months. Summer has arrived in Northern Idaho! Well, that’s a bit optimistic – let’s just say Spring is in full swing with it’s sudden showers, new growth, and increase in sunshine. I’m okay with that.
On this brighter side of our four seasons, I’ve become more appreciative of the weather’s ebb and flow over the past nine months. I look back at the Winter with some fondness for the pretty, fresh snow and the chilly wind as an excuse to drink hot cocoa and make soup. (Please remind me of this come November…)
As I’ve begun acclimating to Idaho’s seasonal changes, I’ve begun to notice some personal habits morph with the seasons as well. The warmer weather has a powerful influence on how I spend my time. Where Winter prompted me to hibernate with books and movies, Summer has pulled me outside with walks and projects around the house. Those seem to be natural shifts, but I was a surprised to note a shift in my blogging habits too.
Writing isn’t just a hobby, it’s a necessary means for me to process life. So, to see my main outlet for writing drop in frequency made me pause. It was hard not to feel like I had failed somehow – I wasn’t on top of my blog schedule or keeping up with social media outlets as much. How could I call writing a passion if it didn’t consume me regardless of the season?
The truth was revealed in the very definition of a season: a period of the year characterized by a particular climatic feature or marked by a particular event or activity. Just like I’m beginning to see the beauty of our changing weather patterns, I’m also beginning to see the importance of changing rhythms in my personal life. Some periods of my life will have different priorities and activities; I need to make space in my life for those natural changes to occur.
The electric green of new growth in Spring wouldn’t be possible without the frost of Winter nights. Autumn’s deep hues are a lovely contrast to the technicolor landscape of Summer come October. Letting words flow for hours during the long evenings of a cold winter breathes life into my soul just as much as working in the back yard on a warm summer afternoon. I need both the feast of writing and famine of silence to keep my passion alive and healthy.
Making space in these shifting seasons requires grace. It means having open hands with the way I spend my time, allowing God to direct those priorities and activities as He sees fit. As much as I like to, I can’t allow my expectations or a previous routine dictate the standards of each new season.
What does that mean for Primitive Roads? I’ll still be navigating this unpaved path with you, just on a less regimented basis. I have two writing projects (an ebook! and this year’s 31 Day Challenge posts) that I’ll be focusing on this summer, but Primitive Roads will not be forgotten.
How are you embracing the rhythms of this new season?
photo credit: pedrosimoes7 via photopin cc
Emily C Gardner 
For reasons that will most likely go unspoken I believe you have made the proper choice in pulling back from the blog. “right” “wrong” who is to say. Em, there is no perfect and hopefully one day you will embrace that concept. Behavior is wrong when it does damage to yourself or others …. when you walk over hearts that love and care. We are all human and it happens, it has happened. I suppose it is what we do with that, that truly matters. If we truly ask God to forgive and we find it in ourselves to forgive ourselves and others….. I think that is worth striving for. Embrace the friends and family that will flow into and out of your new home ….. embrace your new home ….. Folks come for the gift of who you are, the gift of community, not because all is perfect. I have followed your blog since you started … I have learned much about much ! I will miss the daily read however, hopefully the new path/journey/season/lessons will find you content and uplifted.
I love you !
A.B.
I’m not really pulling back from Primitive Roads, I’m just letting it be a bit more “un-scheduled.” All part of the process of embracing the concept that there is no perfect, wouldn’t you say?
I have experienced this same thing myself! It is hard to not feel guilty at first, as that list of “blog topics” is growing ever longer and the length of time between posts ever larger. Especially for those of us who process on paper :) Thank you for writing this, and helping me to realize that even if it ebbs and flows, the passion never dies.
Yes, I would say. Blessings to a new learning journey !
A.B.
An ebook…so fun! I’ve been wanting to write one but don’t know what it would be about. There are so many things I enjoy writing about! Anyways, I’m the same – I transition outside once the sun comes out and spend less time on the computer. Cheers to the lovely Northwest spring/summer! Looking forward to your ebook…whenever you get it finished!
You should definitely write an ebook, Rachel! I’m going the marriage route….