We are creatures of habit. We like consistency and familiarity. It makes us comfortable. We may step out of the box, at least with one foot, to do something new once in a while, or explore new places, but make a game changing shake up? Are you kidding? Why do you think McDonald’s is so successful? It was marketed on the premise that it’s familiar no matter where you are in the world. It’s comfortable.
Change is harder for some than others. My daughter handles big changes in her life with amazing grace and enthusiasm, but when her husband organized her earrings to make her life easier you would have thought he changed her cell phone number! Then she says to me, “I really don’t mind change.” Really? How about I rearrange your furniture? My son is “Mr. Sentimental”, so any change in his life is met with a flow chart of possibilities and probabilities. My husband and I have been toting around boxes of his stuff and storing them for years because he doesn’t have room for them at his place, but he can’t bear to part with them either. Don’t judge us! He’s our son, but I swear the free storage is coming to an end….soon! Very soon!
I walk counterclockwise around the pond every morning. Occasionally I will give in to my husband’s suggestion that we walk clockwise for a change. My whining about it is met with his sarcastic remarks about understanding how it’s so much harder to walk clockwise. After all, “it is uphill that direction.” Seriously! It’s Florida! It’s not uphill in any direction and he’s lucky I’m wearing sunglasses so he can’t see the narrowing of my eyes as I glare at him, but I’m sure he senses it! The truth is, it just doesn’t feel right. It’s like sleeping on the wrong side of the bed. You know what I’m talking about.
The landscapers are at work around our place. Vegetation grows in Florida like the real life version of Jumanji, so if you don’t take serious action you’ll need a machete in no time just to find your car. But, give a man a chainsaw and he suddenly becomes Paul Bunyan’s smaller sidekick! Branches are dropping, palms have new haircuts, what was once dense is now not! I don’t like it! Why? It’s different!
We get use to things the way they are, but the changes that are being made to the landscape around here actually look nice. Thinning the vegetation allows more sunlight to feed and nourish those plants left behind. It’s healthy for them, making a case that change is actually good for all of us. It allows us to grow. Change doesn’t mean leaving everything behind. It’s just moving on. Change is hard, but it means we’re alive, and that’s all good.