Life Is About Changes

In the past several years I've had some major changes in my life:

• I quit my job in Ohio and moved to Arizona--without another job lined up.

• I decided to make a career change and focus on writing, so I sold my house and quit my job.

• I started back to work part-time 10 months later (somewhat as planned).

• My dad was diagnosed with colon/rectal cancer. We don't expect to have him with us much longer.

• My part-time job is going to full-time because my boss's last (unexpected) day was the day before Thanksgiving.

I had known I would have to go back to work full-time. Actually, I'd expected to be working full-time by now--the plan was to stay at home for one year and focus on writing and getting myself established, then I'd go back to work full-time (cuz I need the bennies). And I'm kicking against reality less and less. *sigh* Guess it's finally sinking in. LOL

The trick is to accept change and deal with it positively. I try not to worry about things over which I have no control, and try not to worry about how/if things will work out. God always seems to have a path open for me.

Case in point: When I moved to Arizona without another job lined up, I began working at a large credit union 3 weeks after I arrived in town. A year and a half later, I was Assistant Vice President of Human Resources (later renamed/promoted to Vice President) with a nice salary that enabled me to buy a 1531 square foot, 3 bedroom + den house. The sale of the house 3 years later enabled me to quit that job and try my hand at this writing gig. Then, about a month and a half before I'd planned on starting to submit my resume out there to see what kind of day job I could find (because I was realistic enough to know I'd not be able to support myself with my writing, not yet, anyway!), my old boss from the credit union called and asked me to come work 1 day a week, helping her organize the HR department at the company where she'd just started working. And except for the first week or so, I've worked no less than 2 days a week. Now, about 3 months before I'd planned on *really* looking for a full-time job, I have one.

If I'd worried about things, it would've increased my blood pressure for no good reason.

And my dad? All I can do for him is pray, which I do all the time. He'll be 80 in just a few weeks, so he's lived a good, long life. But, of course it's still hard to think of him not being around. When he's gone, that'll be another change in my life, something that will subtly change who I am.

All I can say is, when life hands you a change, embrace it. What other choice do you have?





"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." ~Alan Cohen