Find the Beauty in the Brown

Every day as I stare out my kitchen window, this is my view. Brown withered leaves, crunchy flower pods, splintered stems… Dead plants. sigh Yesterday, as I stood there preparing dinner, mentally complaining about the lack of life and color in my front yard, I started thinking about the things that are going on within me. And I realized, my problem isn’t external, it’s internal.

I’ve always been a creative person. And every job I’ve ever had has had an outlet for that creativity: when I was in the Army, I got to assist with meal planning {Have you ever planned a Thanksgiving meal for roughly 300 soldiers at a remote location? Trust me, you can get creative and have fun.}, when I was an archivist, I got to set up displays and write descriptions for the pictures, and when I was a librarian, I got to create and maintain our social media accounts… With this position, I’m all admin all the time. My days consist of paperwork, putting out fires, and making sure that things run smoothly. There’s no time or room for creative expression.

As I studied the dried plants through the window, I realized something, they’re not really dead. They’re dormant. In a few short months weeks, they’ll be bursting with color and alive with butterflies and hummingbirds. Within that dried crunchy foliage is hope and life.

So I took out my camera, and started trying to find the beauty in the brown. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” And I firmly believe that. Right now, I’m going through a dormant phase in my career. But, it’s up to me to find the beauty in the brown until I can dance in the colors.

Are you going through a dormant phase? How do you deal?