Change: make or become different
Seems there have been a LOT of changes lately. Not necessarily big changes, but a steady stream of the smaller variety. Oodles of changes at work and quite a few in our family life.
I won't go into detail about the ones at work, as I believe going into detail about work online is a recipe for disaster. Suffice it to say, there are changes in our technology and procedures, changes in personnel, changes in our workspace as we are remodeling. Changes, seemingly all at once.
I won't go into too much detail about the family life changes, but they are rather numerous as well. Pete has gotten back into raising hogs this year. More feed, more chores, good fresh meat. Hannah is about to be a senior in high school and that entails lots of upcoming changes: driver's ed, more AP and 5.0 courses, gathering college financial aid and scholarship information, etc. Daughter-in-law has started a job, so PawPaw is watching Hazil until her daddy gets off work. Bubba is working back in this area instead of pipelining for now. Some days she is still here when I come in, some days not. That's another change, More family time, need a little more planning, less down time.
It's not that anything is a bad change, just that there are so many at one time it almost seems
overwhelming. So, you have to just sit back and ride each little ripple and wave of change and see where it takes you, what becomes of it.
The owner of our company's wife gave us all a monarch butterfly chrysalis this spring. Mine set on our dining room table for the first week, then I moved it to the kitchen window the second week, as it was so cloudy, rainy and overcast. One Sunday morning the chrysalis had turned very dark instead of it's jade green. When we were back from church and I went to the sink later to wash some dishes, I noticed movement. My butterfly had hatched from it's chrysalis! He was hanging on his perch, drying his wings. After a while, I took him out to the picnic table in the yard, as I didn't want him to try to fly in the house. I also didn't want a nosy kitty to get him or a bird to swoop down and eat him, so I baby set him while he stretched and dried. Pete, Hannah and a nephew of ours all observed him for a time. Hannah babysat him while I had to do a thing or two in the house. But most of the several hours it took for him to finish drying I was out there alone with him and my thoughts. The wonder of change, the metamorphosis that took him from caterpillar to butterfly, takes us from babies to adults, the spiritual metamorphosis that Christ leads us on. At the end, he flew up and then right down on my hand. Then he took off for the back porch rail. He sat there in the sun a minute or two, then straight up into a pecan tree. I never saw him again, but the time I spent with him that afternoon, coming to a total standstill, not "doing" anything. stays with me. I may yet get through the changes ahead.
The owner of our company's wife gave us all a monarch butterfly chrysalis this spring. Mine set on our dining room table for the first week, then I moved it to the kitchen window the second week, as it was so cloudy, rainy and overcast. One Sunday morning the chrysalis had turned very dark instead of it's jade green. When we were back from church and I went to the sink later to wash some dishes, I noticed movement. My butterfly had hatched from it's chrysalis! He was hanging on his perch, drying his wings. After a while, I took him out to the picnic table in the yard, as I didn't want him to try to fly in the house. I also didn't want a nosy kitty to get him or a bird to swoop down and eat him, so I baby set him while he stretched and dried. Pete, Hannah and a nephew of ours all observed him for a time. Hannah babysat him while I had to do a thing or two in the house. But most of the several hours it took for him to finish drying I was out there alone with him and my thoughts. The wonder of change, the metamorphosis that took him from caterpillar to butterfly, takes us from babies to adults, the spiritual metamorphosis that Christ leads us on. At the end, he flew up and then right down on my hand. Then he took off for the back porch rail. He sat there in the sun a minute or two, then straight up into a pecan tree. I never saw him again, but the time I spent with him that afternoon, coming to a total standstill, not "doing" anything. stays with me. I may yet get through the changes ahead.
What types of changes are going on in your life right now? Do you usually handle change well, or do you find it upsetting?
