Moods of the Season

It is amaz­ing how much alike we feel with­out even real­iz­ing it. Lately we have been in the full moon nights. Right on cue, the coun­sel­ing load has picked up and is more seri­ous. Church atten­dance is pretty con­sis­tent nation­ally. An “up” Sun­day in Geor­gia is reflected by the same in Ore­gon. We are much more crea­tures of nature and sea­son than we would ever want to admit. Church atten­dance picked up for sev­eral Sun­days after 9/11. That is just a more obvi­ous depic­tion of some­thing that goes on week after week anyway.

We are get­ting into the early stages of thun­der­storm sea­son. It may not be here quite what it is in Okla­homa, but you can still sense the antic­i­pa­tion of the trig­ger­ing cold fronts, in the activ­i­ties of ani­mals and peo­ple around you. Given the national and inter­na­tional finan­cial issues (and their relent­less broad­casts), there is a set of com­mon feel­ings and moods. We are uncer­tain for sure. End­less analy­sis of the sit­u­a­tion only seems to cre­ate more emo­tional uncer­tainty. Like other obses­sions, the end­less words only rein­force the fears.

Chris­tian­ity works best in uncer­tain times. The Great Depres­sion was a real church builder. The Viet Nam War built cam­pus min­istries all over the coun­try. Young peo­ple were look­ing for iden­ti­ties and sup­port sys­tems. The col­lege years were con­sid­ered sacred. Now they seem to be mainly the time to pay the dues to achieve a spot in the good life. Young peo­ple want their tick­ets punched so they can have what their par­ents had — and more.

Feb­ru­ary is a dif­fi­cult month emo­tion­ally for lots, if not most, peo­ple. It is more than the drab look of trees or the shad­ows of the com­ing tax sea­son. It also car­ries the images of the “win­ter of the soul” in its tran­si­tions. We feel like the trees look, but we also sense inner spir­i­tual ener­gies ris­ing. The con­trasts are unsettling.

Moods are not a shal­low phe­nom­e­non at all. They can denote the deep inner stir­rings of the Spirit or the decay of a soci­ety. They may seem super­fi­cial, but they have roots deep in the intu­ition. We are alive. The mys­te­ri­ous ener­gies move on grand scales. We are not islands unto our­selves. Emo­tional con­ta­gion is present. Moods are not shaken but expe­ri­enced in their full mea­sure. They run their cycle, but they leave a wake of con­fused men­tal waters too.

I have learned to set­tle into what­ever the emo­tional sea­son. There is a bless­ing in acknowl­edg­ing rather than fight­ing it. Life’s mys­ter­ies are not only around us but in us. Our moods may be the reflec­tion of the feel­ings and moods of Some­thing Higher. Look­ing up and look­ing within may be the same thing.