It’s been a good week. How could one filled with a visit from cousins and Uncle J. and Aunt Nic. not be? We laughed together and enjoyed simply being together. In living 6 states apart, visits are few and far between and for that, all the richer. 

Back to Five Minute Friday … my favorite writing exercise, with a new “host” – Kate instead of Lisa-Jo. Find out more here.  

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To move from one condition to another will always bring pain and joy and beauty. Think of the caterpillar growing fat upon the leaf, then cocooned in darkness while metamorphosis works its magic to produce – voila! – a radiant colorful winged butterfly. Nature knows change is both inevitable and painful. The seasons moving from one to another and bringing creation with them, from the fresh glory of spring to the long beauty of summer, then fall’s radiance as the prelude to winter’s sometimes bitter calm and death. All is barren. All is white (or brown, down here in the South where we don’t see much of the glorious white flakes). 

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We are all part of change. Some of it I embrace. Bring on maturity, please, for me and my children. A new season just as I’m tiring of the old one. A newly planted hydrangea that blooms tenfold next summer. Yes, for growth and change. But hold your horses before you go forcing losses on me, for that’s also part of the change. The caterpillar must surrender its caterpillar-ness and cozy cocoon to become a butterfly. The trees surrender their leaves to turn brilliant and then begin again. Hearts grieve with the distance of friends and family who move away. Communities heave with sorrow after tragedy. 

To think that there is One who never changes during all of my changes? That breathes hope into even the bitter losses of change, and it enlivens the best of changes. I will cling to this Unchanging One through all my changing days.