Seasons of Life?

It's been an interesting month to say the least. Wow. Life can be so weird at times. I think I always thought of life like seasons. You are always hearing people saying, this season will pass, seasons of our lives, and so forth. I guess when I think of that I think that hard times will be followed by good, or growing times, followed by reaping the fruits. I am starting to think that is not necessarily true. Oh I can see the faces now, with one eyebrow tilted up and the opposite angle of lip tilted down. You know, the "what are talking about look."
Well this is what I am talking about. I don't think my life has ever really went that way, you know in seasons. I mean I have had my hard times, and my really great times, but for some reason most of the time it all happens simultaneously. I guess I had started to think that when life gets hard that is it is going to be hard for a while and then it's going to be really good times to make up for the hard times. Not so. But this isn't a bad thing really, I know it sounds like a downer right now. But here is the thing, life is always challenging. For instance I have a chronic back problem, meaning I will most likely have it for the rest of my life unless the Lord decides to heal me. There is always pain, the extent varies. It gets really hard and then it gets better and then it gets hard and so on. Right now I am in one of those hard spells. I used to wait for the spells to go away, and think after this I am going to have something great happen. While I was waiting I was missing all the great stuff going on around me. Now is different. This is a hard time in life physically, and my work situation was really hard for a long time. But now that is much better, and I am going to this great church and making great friends. My family is all here, and there are so many great things happening on a daily basis. So I am learning that maybe there really aren't seasons, but more of a marriage.
I know that there is always going to be some kind of challenge, it is never going to go away, not even for a season, but there are also going to be great times in the midst. And the lesson is to keep looking and appreciating the great stuff, and learn from the hard stuff all at the same time.