Change

Ack! Change is coming and as I sip slowly on this last bit of summer, I ever so reluctantly prepare my mind for the change that is coming. Oh, if I just would welcome change the way I used to. I wasn't always so resistant to change. In fact, I used to get a rush from change. It was so fun to start something new. So fun to be in a new place and meet new people. Somewhere down the line as I grew older and became a mom, I began to value the sameness, the routine of life more than change. Change actually gets me quite stressed out now. Who would have thought I would go from one extreme to the other?

I used to ride the roller coasters at amusement parks. Actually, I made a beeline for them. They were my favorite. The thrill of whipping around corners and descending rapidly made me scream at the top of my lungs. Now, I can barely swing at the playground without feeling queasy. My body, my mind; it's changed without my permission.

But I know some things about change intellectually that won't allow me sulk.

"Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine." ~Robert C. Gallagher

Isn't that a funny way to see the truth?

"When you are through changing, you are through." ~Bruce Barton

I know that as a living, breathing being, I am changing and things around me are changing. But one of my most compelling reasons for embracing change is that I need it. And I know that it offers me more than staying the same. I know that school will be a growing, stretching experience for me. I know that I will meet new people, learn new things and become closer to doing what I've always wanted to do.

"Change always comes bearing gifts." ~Price Pritchett

I read in one of my papers I wrote in college (way back when), my professor wrote in the margin in response to one of my statements "anxiety is necessary for growth."

I thought of that and I thought, "I am so anxious about going back to school. Yet, I must be coming into a major growth spurt!"

"Growth is the only evidence of life." ~John Henry Newman, Apologia pro vita sua, 1864

Others may be feeling that same anxiety. The anxiety of something coming to an end and something new starting. But that anxiety is actually great motivation. A friend said that it actually gives you an edge. So here's to growth spurts and having an edge. Let the change that's coming, help you grow and present you with the gifts that only it can bring.