The Essence of Change
Things change.
This was never shown more clearly to me than on our last beach vacation.
The place where we have been vacationing and relaxing ....has changed. And I don't mean more tourists or more traffic I mean the essence of the beach and the ocean, have changed. In our spot the ocean has more waves. Those luxurious days of calm blue Caribbean-like water are gone. This has happened over a small amount of time and I have taken notice. The shells we once collected in abundance are gone. There are a few scattered about but none as in the days when I made a shell collection, saving jar upon jar, full, beautiful, but no more. The shells are there out beyond the continental shelf I know, but whatever force made them cast upon the shore, is no more. Global warming? I am not an Oceanographer and I have no idea. (I do remember the Polar Vortex so I am not so sure about that one - that was pretty darn chilly and extreme) But I do know this, something as big as the ocean and that has been in place since God has called it into being, has dramatically changed.
Our family has changed, when we first arrived at our beach spot our kids were college aged, the boyfriend and girlfriend, then the fiancees vacationed with us and now the kids are married and we have grandchildren. Another vast and miraculous change.
I too, have changed, I am now a grandmother, I have more wrinkles, less stamina, and more pounds. I am adapting and overcoming as the Marines say but I, and those around me, have noticed.
My friends lives have changed too, jobs, marriages, cancer. Those changes suddenly come and they dramatically change lives and knock us off our feet. Dramatic changes that can defeat and destroy and may even be accompanied by moves, or a change of your whole life plan. Perhaps I had a plan A and maybe even B but was not planning for C,D,E, and F.
I read a blog recently (and I would give credit if I could find the author but this is not my original idea) the author had been pink slipped from a job she loved. As she walked out to the sidewalk and told her friend, her friend said "mourn it" What? Mourn a job loss. But the more I thought about this the more powerful the idea became. We have to process and mourn the big and the small. Feel your feelings, cry, experience the grief. Let it have its effect. But the renewed power comes when we move on.
How then do we respond? When the changes come and the waves roar. Well as a Christian, I believe we run, to the Lord, the Word and let him heal the hurts that only he can heal. It is kind of simple to me, but that is my faith. I do believe we spend time in the Bible and the study of the word now, in our everyday, before calamity strikes. That good foundation will help us in a time of crisis which will surely come. If my spiritual bucket is empty when the crisis strikes, it will be harder to fill up in the the midst of a storm.
As a spiritual person, I have an energy source to plug into, and it serves me well. We need to remember we ARE new creatures and stop trying to patch up the old one. Cast the old one aside and embrace the new creature that you have become at spiritual re-birth. Step out in faith and be the new creature we have become. Being ever mindful, we, as Christians, don't cast off Christ, he has bought us with a price and made a covenant with us and we don't cast off our covenants either. but we are made new;
But we, all of us, must learn to adapt and change and set our sails into the wind and head out, into a new unknown. We have the vast resource of the power of the human we are great at change. We adapt. Those who live in NYC deal with large sums of people and cars and a 24 hour cycle. They have adapted. The fisherman in Alaska, goes out and stays out on the icy water for days at a time retrieving his catch. He too has adapted and overcome.
The Albert Einstein definition of insanity is "doing the same thing, repeatdedly and expecting a different result"
The sage, Jim Rohn said; "You can move you aren't a tree"
We have all done it, we get stuck in the same old habits and same old ways. But we can break free, start a new habit, break an old pattern, many times the only one who holds us in place is ourselves. Maybe we need a friend and confident that we can share our struggles with and ask them, "What can I do to change this situation?" Sometimes we just need a new perspective and send us on our way. Maybe our struggles are more serious, seek out a professional counselor, get their help. Some find they need a life coach or a career coach. Seek them out and begin the process. Do not suffer in secret, a secret exposed loses its power.
The ocean showed me that if something in God's creation that has been in place for thousands of year experiences change then so will I. This change on such a massive scale really struck me. Do you know when you are stuck and need to move on? We need to recognize that in ourselves if we can. We also need to give the friends in our lives the permission to speak if they see an area of need. And perhaps spur us, encourage us, or even push us to move on.
I've heard people say; "I hate change" I have lived 57 years on this little earth and at this point I do not see how it can be avoided. let's embrace it, manage it, mourn it and move on. Life is short and I want to squeeze every drop out of it that I can, change things up and enjoy the ride.
This was never shown more clearly to me than on our last beach vacation.
The place where we have been vacationing and relaxing ....has changed. And I don't mean more tourists or more traffic I mean the essence of the beach and the ocean, have changed. In our spot the ocean has more waves. Those luxurious days of calm blue Caribbean-like water are gone. This has happened over a small amount of time and I have taken notice. The shells we once collected in abundance are gone. There are a few scattered about but none as in the days when I made a shell collection, saving jar upon jar, full, beautiful, but no more. The shells are there out beyond the continental shelf I know, but whatever force made them cast upon the shore, is no more. Global warming? I am not an Oceanographer and I have no idea. (I do remember the Polar Vortex so I am not so sure about that one - that was pretty darn chilly and extreme) But I do know this, something as big as the ocean and that has been in place since God has called it into being, has dramatically changed.
Our family has changed, when we first arrived at our beach spot our kids were college aged, the boyfriend and girlfriend, then the fiancees vacationed with us and now the kids are married and we have grandchildren. Another vast and miraculous change.
I too, have changed, I am now a grandmother, I have more wrinkles, less stamina, and more pounds. I am adapting and overcoming as the Marines say but I, and those around me, have noticed.
My friends lives have changed too, jobs, marriages, cancer. Those changes suddenly come and they dramatically change lives and knock us off our feet. Dramatic changes that can defeat and destroy and may even be accompanied by moves, or a change of your whole life plan. Perhaps I had a plan A and maybe even B but was not planning for C,D,E, and F.
I read a blog recently (and I would give credit if I could find the author but this is not my original idea) the author had been pink slipped from a job she loved. As she walked out to the sidewalk and told her friend, her friend said "mourn it" What? Mourn a job loss. But the more I thought about this the more powerful the idea became. We have to process and mourn the big and the small. Feel your feelings, cry, experience the grief. Let it have its effect. But the renewed power comes when we move on.
How then do we respond? When the changes come and the waves roar. Well as a Christian, I believe we run, to the Lord, the Word and let him heal the hurts that only he can heal. It is kind of simple to me, but that is my faith. I do believe we spend time in the Bible and the study of the word now, in our everyday, before calamity strikes. That good foundation will help us in a time of crisis which will surely come. If my spiritual bucket is empty when the crisis strikes, it will be harder to fill up in the the midst of a storm.
As a spiritual person, I have an energy source to plug into, and it serves me well. We need to remember we ARE new creatures and stop trying to patch up the old one. Cast the old one aside and embrace the new creature that you have become at spiritual re-birth. Step out in faith and be the new creature we have become. Being ever mindful, we, as Christians, don't cast off Christ, he has bought us with a price and made a covenant with us and we don't cast off our covenants either. but we are made new;
2 Corinthians 5:17New King James Version (NKJV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
The Albert Einstein definition of insanity is "doing the same thing, repeatdedly and expecting a different result"
The sage, Jim Rohn said; "You can move you aren't a tree"
We have all done it, we get stuck in the same old habits and same old ways. But we can break free, start a new habit, break an old pattern, many times the only one who holds us in place is ourselves. Maybe we need a friend and confident that we can share our struggles with and ask them, "What can I do to change this situation?" Sometimes we just need a new perspective and send us on our way. Maybe our struggles are more serious, seek out a professional counselor, get their help. Some find they need a life coach or a career coach. Seek them out and begin the process. Do not suffer in secret, a secret exposed loses its power.
The ocean showed me that if something in God's creation that has been in place for thousands of year experiences change then so will I. This change on such a massive scale really struck me. Do you know when you are stuck and need to move on? We need to recognize that in ourselves if we can. We also need to give the friends in our lives the permission to speak if they see an area of need. And perhaps spur us, encourage us, or even push us to move on.
I've heard people say; "I hate change" I have lived 57 years on this little earth and at this point I do not see how it can be avoided. let's embrace it, manage it, mourn it and move on. Life is short and I want to squeeze every drop out of it that I can, change things up and enjoy the ride.
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