Everything Has Its Time

 By Harper Hall

A sprawling garden rests on the slope of a hill in the backyard of my childhood home. It serves as a place of serenity for local wildlife, where deer stop to graze the hostas, birds chirp from high above, and the occasional fox scampers by. I look back on the beautiful blooms of spring with awe, the lush green of summer wistfully, and the quiet blanket of winter with contentment. My brother and I scoured the garden every year for easter eggs, running barefoot and trampling the sedges, much to the amusement of my wonderful neighbor, Wanda. Wanda, a witty and fierce woman now in her 80s, has been the primary caretaker of the garden since its creation before we moved in, and she tends to its needs with profound love. She taught me how to identify and care for all types of flora, and to this day, my favorite plant is a bleeding heart because of her. As time passed and she couldn’t care for the garden anymore, the plants became unkempt and unruly, and the path of pine needles harder to find. My mother and I lamented this change in early August, both of us upset at how the garden was slipping through our fingers. In connecting with Wanda to mourn this loss, her response was just two sentences: “Don’t cry. Everything has its time.”  

Everything has its time. Winter will always return, causing plants to wither, the forest to decay, and life cycles to end. Impermanence is ever present. I was reminded of this fact over the summer as I dove into the world of Wendell Berry, an author who continuously pays homage to the natural world in all its beauty and grief. In The Memory of Old Jack, Berry honors the lifecycle of a cherished community member, Jack Beechum, through capturing the simple eloquence of his daily life. As Jack inches closer to death, he recognizes the cyclical patterns of life, stating “He knows that as one of the inescapable themes of his life: the departure from him, from the beginning, of men and women he has loved, of days and years, of lightness and swiftness and strength. The other theme is faithfulness to what has remained. What has remained is the good darkness out of which all things come, even the light, and to which they all go back again.” 

The good darkness of which all things come and return to is a natural part of life on this earth. Death and change are inevitable, but their certainty can be reconciled through fostering a greater appreciation for the present moment. This doesn’t mean only focusing on the light, but acknowledging the presence of darkness and death, accepting the impermanence of life, and choosing to move forward with joy, love, and hope. Everything has its time, so spend a little more time in the present. Pause on your way to work on a brisk day and admire how the sun warms your face. Linger a little longer in moments you know you can’t stay. Walk through the garden one more time. Shake your head at the half-eaten hostas. Greet the bleeding heart. Wrap your sweater a little tighter as the crisp fall breeze rustles the plants and chills your bones, signaling winter is coming.

Harper is a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville in the Class of 2028. She is studying political science and history.