S7 E15: Caught Between Grief and Joy

Hey hey! Thanks for being here! Before we get into today’s episode I want to let you know that the She Is Awakening Seasonal Journal is available to order!  I am so excited about this journal you guys and can’t wait for you to have it in your hands as we walk through this season of Spring together!

The journal guides us through the 13 weeks of Spring with a weekly focus page with a scan code that will lead to additional resources. Each week has original art created just for this Spring Edition and they’ll be free downloaded quotes and lots of other goodies! 

I do want to mention that the first day of Spring is March 20 so if you want to have your book by then you need to run not walk to Amazon or my website!!  We’ll have the link in the show notes as well to make it easier on you 🙂

I’m excited about this seasonal journal because the art and messages I share tend to be through the lens of seasons and this journal is just another layer in that.

We are in the second week of March and in a few weeks we will officially welcoming the season of Spring. It’s always a neat thing when the natural seasons of life line up with the actual season of life we are living out. But that’s not always the case.

But I’m pretty sure we are all well aware that seasons can change pretty quickly and without notice and sometimes we can feel caught in the in-between space of the now and not yet…

Maybe you are coming out of a Winter season that was cold and hard in so many ways and you find yourself heading into Spring feeling caught between grief and joy. 

Hard Winter seasons can take a lot out of us. Life can sometimes feel like one big kick in the gut that takes your breath away and you need a minute to recover.

Sometimes that kick can knock off some stuff that needed to be kicked off but even then it’s still hard.  I think we are under the impression that if something is right and good then it should be easy and I just haven’t found that to be true. Life is full of beautiful and hard moments …

We are allowed to grieve loss and we are also allowed to hold space to experience joy at the same time

For me, I’ve found this to not be as easy as it sounds.

This moving from one season to the next can take some intentionality on our part for a couple of reasons.

For starters, I think we experience things in our bodies more than we realize.  I don’t think we are always aware of the impact because it’s not like we had an accident and broke an arm or leg and have a cast as evidence of the injury. But just because it’s not something we can visibly see or even physically feel in the moment doesn’t mean that it’s not having an effect on our physical bodies. This could be a whole other episode and probably should be but for now, I’ll just say it has been well-studied and documented that our physical bodies are affected by what we are feeling and thinking, and experiencing in our lives.

With that being said when we have felt and experienced things on such a deep level it literally changes us. And when the experiences have been painful and hard we feel it in our core and it affects how we see and experience life.

The second thing reason I want to look at requires us to be intentional in entering and being present in a new season

Loss and grief can be tricky … 

It’s easy to romanticize what was.

Many of us have experiences of past relationships that ended and we find ourselves remembering only the things we miss about the relationship. 

I remember doing this so many times after breaking up with someone because for whatever reason knew the relationship didn’t need to go any further and felt good about the decision and yet days and weeks later I found myself romanticizing what was and only remembering the things I enjoyed or what worked in the relationship and ignoring all of the reasons I ended things in the first place.

Now I’m not wanting to imply that everything in the past that has ended needs to be framed as it’s over and gone and wasn’t a great experience in your life. I’m just wanting us to be honest when looking back that even though you are grieving a loss there were most likely parts that you knew weren’t part of your future and didn’t love then but now that it’s gone you aren’t remembering that.

Experiences can be good and still have been for a past season and it’s time to move on. 

So how do we show up in a new season that we in many ways don’t feel we’re ready for?

We don’t do it alone…

You might notice I make that point a lot because I think we all need the reminder because being alone and feeling the weight of it all being on you is the biggest lie the enemy of our soul wants us to believe.

We have to daily and sometimes hourly and moment by moment take that lie captive and replace it with the truth that as believers the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us.

Now That's some power for us to walk in!

I was doing an interview this past week for a Business podcast for women and was asked about these rhythms and living intentionally that I talk about a lot and the why behind this seasonal journal I’ve created.

And my answer to her was these rhythms were created in my own life out of desperation. Desperation to connect to my Creator outside of anything or anyone else. 

One of the first pages of the journal talks about the scripture found in PS 46:10 that says be still and know….

This is how we move into a new season fully present, feeling caught between grief and joy

We do it connected to our life source. True life energizes and strengthens our spirit with the gifts and fruits of the spirit. 

And one of those fruits produced by the holy spirit is JOY, a joy that we can’t manufacture on our own. Joy is supernatural and comes from the spirit of God being alive in us.

Guys, I am ready and expectant for all the growth that God has for each of us this Spring!

I hope you’ll check out the links in the show notes and grab a journal and let’s walk through this Spring together.