Ebb & Flow

The world has a rhythm by which it subsists. The moon waxes and wanes, water ebbs and flows, seasons come and go. So it is with life. Yet so often we find ourselves fighting its natural cadence.

There’s been a little of that going on at Inspirations HQ lately. We relished the ‘wax and flow’ of our time in Daylesford photographing A Passion for Needlework IV yet resisted the ‘wane and ebb’ of returning to the everyday.

Don’t many of us do this all too often?!

We try and hold on to our favourite season whether it be spring, summer, autumn or winter. We seek to hold tight to that oh, so perfect moment as if by doing so means it won’t be so fleeting. We hesitate to lay down our needles and threads when we’ve found their seamless push and pull through fabric for fear it won’t be found again.

Life, however, changes in regular and repeated ways.

Seasons will come and go. Perfect moments will seem as if they disappear almost before they’ve arrived. That seamless push and pull will at times seem all but impossible to find. But, as Ann Voskamp wrote in her most recent book, Waymaker, ‘life comes in waves, and the way to live is to find a way to ride the waves.’

There’s a peace that comes when we accept that all of life is movement. Sometimes life is wax and flow as we move gently closer towards our goals and dreams. Whilst at other times the turbulence of the wane and ebb requires us to draw on our inner strength to weather the storm before us.

We just have to remember the shift eventually comes. Remembering the shift will prompt us to be grateful through seasons of ease and remind us that difficult times will eventually pass.