Stick Season
The Things We Can See When Everything Falls
“We call this ‘stick season,’” a client said to me over Zoom as she looked out her window.
She was pivoting the conversation away from the previous five minutes of sharing that she had done regarding her seven-year-old business endeavor which had recently come to a difficult end.
She then turned her laptop screen toward her window so I could see her view.
Pure white lay across a forest strewn with dead sticks, fallen leaves, and a quiet landscape.
“Stick Season.” Ever been there?
Most of the branches that comprised your ecosystem of support are… now broken.
Your season of vibrant growth, high esteem, and limitless potential… has fallen.
The endless amount of color, activity, and opportunity that made up your work and life now… feels barren.
The growth trajectory is no longer promising… or even feasible.
Stick Season can feel like a low point.
An isolating landscape.
A devastating reality.
Sometimes it’s a mix of all of these.
And…
…it may also be something else at the very same time.
As my client went on to explain, “Stick Season is my very favorite season of the year.”
She continued, “It’s the only time of the year that I can see through everything. And I can finally see the distant horizon.”
She then paused and summarized how the season feels to her whenever she hikes through it.
“It feels less claustrophobic. It feels open and fresh. It feels free.”
And I wondered the degree to which she was talking about hiking the winter woods and the degree to which she was talking about the end of her seven-year-old business endeavor - and the beginning of a new vision before her.
I asked her.
She was talking about both.
—
What about you?
If you’re in a version of “Stick Season” and known recent…
low points or loss,
failures or falls,
malaise or market downturns…
What would it look like to take an honest hike (literal or metaphorical) right through it?
And during your hike, what if you considered a few questions along the way?
Questions like…
What can you now see much more clearly?
What do you notice has remained sturdy, true, and present?
In what ways might Stick Season be a gift?
You might also consider this:
What if everything that has…
fallen,
broken,
and failed…
…never goes to waste?
What if all of that becomes the most essential soil for your next season of…
creativity,
vitality,
and growth?
Love the photos you use to embellish your stories. There were exceptional. I may never see the late fall/winter so negatively.
Your ability to ask just the right questions is amazing and cultivates growth in your readers. Thank you