When Change is Here to Stay

When school was out for the summer, I thought to msyelf: "Finally! I can catch my breath! I can finally slow down a little and really enjoy myself!" But the very next week, I was working with a museum to collect data on a fossil bone bed, giving a workshop for teachers and beginning plans for a new teacher program for my area. And when that was over, I thought "Okay! Now I can finally catch my breath! Get back to that relaxing non-routine I've been looking forward to all year!" and then I promptly left town for the weekend to see a relative's new baby and when I got back from that, I promptly left the state for a month to study hardcore astronomy (see Moving on Indeed). When I got back from that, I thought "Finally! Now I can catch my breath and relax!" and then that very day I helped move a family member into a new apartment and helped my best friend move out of her house. As I feel my summer slip between my fingers, I start looking at my calendar and do I see that nice relaxing time to just rest? Well, no, not exactly. I see another trip out of the state, I see another couple of workshops to give, family reunions, friends to go see before they move out of state - and then school starting again, with more workshops to give, more conferences to attend, more weekend roadtrips. Suddenly, it doesn't look like things are ever going to get back to normal at all, and it's a little alarming.

I see a lot of people around me going through the same thing, actually. I see parents getting ready to send the last of their kids off to college. I see a lot of my friends moving to new places, getting new jobs far away from the life we have spent together over the last year. I see new Mom's. I see people moving on from ended marraiges and people adjusting to new marraiges. Everywhere I look there are people suddenly coming to the realization that change is here for good.

I keep asking myself how on earth I got to be so busy. At this time last year, I was dying for something to do or someone to talk to. Now I've got so much to do that I can't remember it all and so many people moving in and out of my life that I can't keep in touch with everybody like I should.

Wait a minute. Rewind. Was I just feeling worried because now I have causes to be passionate about? Was I just now feeling bedraggled because of all these people who need a piece of my time? Those are the very things I was praying for!!! Look at that! New things to do and see! New people to love and be loved by! Isn't that wonderful? Maybe I should be looking at all of these changes in my life, not as something that is keeping me from having my "normal" life, but as blessings, as new doors that open to more blessings I couldn't have imagined for myself. Yes, it's a little unsettling to have the very ground beneath me shift to something I don't recognize anymore, but I can't forget that there is one thing that remains unchanged in our lives, and that's God. He knows we are a little uncomfortable with how busy life has gotten, but He's got so many wonderful things that will come from it all, just waiting for us to happen on to. He knows you're broken hearted because of a friend or a child that is moving away, but He's going to carry you through it and get you to a new place where life is just as joyous as you remember it being before everything changed, but joyous in a new way.

And so when I think about that way, things look a little different and I can finally come to terms with the fact that my life is going to be different now. Change is here to stay. And somehow, that's ok.