Some friends of ours found this sign for us at a garage sale last year after we moved. We now have a bit more land and a small barn – just the kind of place our chickens needed to roam. We have had chickens for about 5 years now. I’m addicted to the farm fresh eggs, and we’ve turned our kids into egg snobs. They don’t like eating eggs anywhere else because they taste different! What I didn’t know about chickens is that they would crack me up. They do the funniest things at times.
We’ve lived in our new house for over a year and we have three chickens that just took to fence hopping. One is the ring leader and two immediately follow. So the kids, at least two or three times a day are going outside and corralling the chickens back into their fenced area. This makes the rooster very nervous so then he hops the fence to try to protect the rogue threesome.
As I was watching them hop the fence again this morning, it made me realize I am way too much like that rogue group. I hate fences and cliques and following the rules. I love adventure and seek it whenever I get a chance. I tend to buck authority any opportunity I can get (those of you who know me well are nodding and smiling at this point). I’m always looking for greener pastures. Rebelling with a couple girlfriends is my idea of a great time!
On a serious note, I realized these chickens can tell us something more about the season of life we are in. These rogue chickens were perfectly happy with the flock until recently and the season changed from fall to winter.
In chronic illness, sometimes it is time to embrace a change of season. I don’t know if that is a change of attitude, or a change of friendship or job or health status, but we must embrace and take hold of the change we’ve been given. Is it time for you to hop the fence in search of adventure again and greener pastures? Have you been locked up by this illness entirely too long and its time for a radical change? Hop that fence then.
What is it you would like to embrace this change of season? We are all trepidatious when it comes to taking that first step again in life, but don’t be afraid and don’t do it alone. Don’t let this illness suck all the adventure out of life forever. It can only have what you let it have in your mind. I get it, sometimes physically you just can’t keep up – yet. But your change of season is coming, just you wait.
On the flip side, sometimes we need to embrace what today has given us. Accept that this year I have limitations physically or financially due to the illness – but accept it with a contented spirit (this message is for me). I tend to always want to be the chicken jumping the fence and I fight it tooth and nail when I can’t. I need to be more content on those limited days and seasons to just graze with the flock under the watchful eye of the rooster.
Accept the season you are in, but realize just that. It is a season and all seasons come to an end. It is not your identity to be sick. It is not your identity to be tired all the time. It is not your identity to be broke. Lyme is not you. It is not who you are.
You are whatever chicken you set your mind to be – rogue or not, a contented spirit will help. Contentment does not mean I have to like this season or that I am happy I am in it. The dictionary says contentment is “ease of mind”. Your mind has enough stress to sort out the emotional and spiritual stress of healing, it doesn’t need to fight and swim upstream at the same time.
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. (Ecc 3:1-8)
Later in verse 9-10, The Message puts it like this “I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life.”
Live in this season, truly live. Don’t just ride it out. You don’t have to jump the fence today, but do something that makes you feel alive, whether that means fence jumping or staying with the flock. Feeling alive breeds contentment.
Blessings and healing,
Janice Fairbairn – The Lyme Evangelist
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