Winds of Change

I have to admit, I do like the cooler seasons, especially fall. The first cold morning a few weeks ago, I swear I could smell snow building up from the north. The landscape explodes into waves of color, reds and oranges and yellows, as the greens of summer fade from the branches of the mighty trees. Soon, they will lose most of their colors to the approaching winds of winter. How I love the changing of the seasons.

We as humans travel through our own changes as well. Our bodies grow, age, wither, and eventually fade. Our minds change with increased knowledge and awareness, grasping higher levels of insight and understanding, memory skills diminishing, eventual withering away with our bodies. Our spirits sore with energy and wonder and move into life responsibilities, resting eventually in the warmth of our stories. With the seasons, we change, but at a much slower pace.

Change is neither good nor bad, it is just inevitable. Change has no other purpose than to change. It is how we as humans grasp change in our lives, that which leads to joy or that which leads into struggles, and that which rests somewhere between, that determines the ease of the passing seasons. We can meet our challenges and welcome them into our lives with the understanding that our growth rests in these challenges, and our becoming authentic as people in God’s will needs these challenges. Or, we can fight growth with all of our strength, spending our lives running from the inevitable.

Change is not becoming dormant, it is not being complacent or weak, it is all about understanding and becoming what we are designed to be. The trees do not fight the changing colors and the eventual lose of their leaves. They do not become weak in the presence of change, but rather, they grow in strength through the process of change. Change is meant to do the same for us, to aid us in becoming stronger and healthier, holistically, to be who the Creator created us to be.

In our change, we recognize what is not healthy for us, who are not healthy for us, and we acknowledge the need for change. We might not like who we must walk away from, what parts of the self are no longer valid, the moves in life we must make, but we can recognize them, acknowledge them, and then accept the changes that we must make to be who we need to be. Acceptance can be a difficult step as what we often desire to hold onto is really just the memories of the past, or how we want it to be, and when we accept the reality of the present, letting go of what keeps us rooted in dysfunction, whether its habits, relationships, etc, we can transition into the changes of life that will lead us into healthier and more functional lives.

Being a fan of cool and colder climates of fall, winter and spring, also makes me not a fan of the heat of summer. As much as I dislike the heat of summer, I can be grateful for the changes of the seasons, for the opportunity summer brings, and look forward to the other side, when I will smell the cold air and snow building up from the north winds. Embrace the changes God brings into your life, and learn to be grateful for what is and what is to come.


(The writings in this post are random thoughts and observations and are NEVER intended as professional or personal advice. Take what works and leave the rest. For information on mental health and/or substance abuse help, visit http://www.rodneyvalandra.com and refer to the links page.)

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