Let me be present, honest, and unveiled with you for just a bit.
As a human being on earth, I am constantly impressed by the many cultural transformations taking place across the globe. As an American citizen, I am attentive to the varied political reformations attempted around me. As a University student, I am both recipient and voice to various shifts on campus. As a (*gasp!* final year) teenager, I am both an admirer and critic of my generation and the noticeable legacy we are leaving. As a sister and daughter, I am an active participant in familial changes. As a friend, I am blessed to offer support and encouragement when changes are abounding in others’ lives.
And these are just the basics, the first things that come to my mind.
Change is one of the hardest things we must face. When moments pass, they are never coming back. If you will permit me a little cheese.
Time is like a river. You can’t touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.
You are the ones who already know what a blessing Change can be, but you may also be the ones who have not experienced any changes large enough to shake you foundations. I beg you -- Don’t judge, and be there for others when something (good or bad) rocks their world. If something rocks yours, then you’ll know who you can go to for help. Learn from everyone.
Contrastingly, some readers will be saying, “Change? A Blessing? Embrace it? Embrace moving away from those closest to me, losing them completely, missing out on big opportunities, missing out on small moments, not having enough time to do or be _________? I’m not sure it’s possible. I am only learning how to endure it."
You are more likely the readers who have been troubled with change repeatedly. Transitions in your life may not even always be bad. They can be the best things ever, and still be difficult to embrace. By now in your life, you know time is not simply a poetic flowing river. It may be a river, but if so it’s raging, and you’ve mastered the art of clinging to the life raft through anything. I beg you-- learn to laugh.
To everyone, don’t be afraid. (And seriously, learn to laugh. I mean it! Laugh at anything and everything. I’m not encouraging meanness, so do not mistake me. I am encouraging fearlessness and lightheartedness and love.)
I am NOT writing this as one who has never felt the pains of change. Loved ones have died (in three consecutive autumns), I've been homesick, wished life could slow down, etc.
However, I have also gained new loved ones (my sister-in-law for example), gained a ton of independence and experience, and had adventures worth sharing.
Thus, I AM WRITING TO YOU AS ONE WHO KNOWS. I know the good, the bad, and the ugly. I know what it is to travel, and what it is to stay in one place for what feels like forever. I know what it is to lose friends and to gain new ones.
I also know I am only just beginning.
(I also know I will still be saying that when my hair is white, sooooo…)
I am going to share a few of my favorite quotes. I honestly do not believe I could embrace Change the way I do without taking these reminders to heart. I hope you enjoy them and use them as much as I do. (Oh, and I also HIGHLY recommend thebooks they’re taken from.)
From C.S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet, come two quotes:
“And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back--if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?”
“A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking, Hmán, as if pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing.”
From Jennifer Zartman’s Rory: King of Petla:
“I’ve spent a lot of time being more comfortable at home...I feel like a lot of life has flowed by my house, right under the window, and I never saw it or felt it or lived it. This feels so much more alive...I want to be like those trees...I want to go out in color not just turn gray and drop off the branch.”
I wish you a full life of color and good memories, and all the luck at embracing change.
