Embracing Change
Is it just me or is EVERYTHING changing? My husband and I recently bought a house and moved last month. This month our oldest daughter graduates from high school. Next month we will be moving to our new office location and our youngest daughter turns 16 at the end of this summer, just before our oldest goes off to Auburn (War Eagle!). Those are just a few of my personal changes- not to mention the larger changes of different kinds happening all around us. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty tired of all of these changes!
I have been longing for the beach lately! (I guess it starts to warm up and I start thinking about the beach). You know what’s interesting about the beach? It is always the same, but it’s also always changing. For many years we have gone to the same condo and walk to the back deck and look out on the water and it’s always there, waves crashing, sea gulls flying, sky and water meeting at the horizon. But sometimes there’s seaweed on the beach, sometimes the tide is low, the sand bars have moved all around, maybe the water is clear or maybe it looks like a lake. It’s always and also never the same. I think that is like my life right now. Everything is different, but the same.
There are always things we can count on and one of those things is change! So, if we know it is inevitable, how can we learn to navigate change successfully? Can we learn to adjust to the tides? What is the metaphorical way to “pick up the blanket” and shift it back a few feet? When the water is rough, can we go below and recognize the peace within? The chaos around us doesn’t have to be within us. How can we learn to swim in less than favorable conditions?
I don’t really have a good answer, but I think that when I am looking at the “beach” of my life right now, I don’t want to just stay on the shore, fearful of what will happen next, or angry because it’s not what I wanted, or sad because life moves so fast. I (kind of) want to dive in and enjoy what is there, even if it does mean I come out of the water with a bunch of seaweed in my hair!
How about you? What changes are on the horizon and how can you embrace them, rather than run from them or avoid them?
