Change

Often, we hear that “change is hard.” What about when change is good?

Setting up a new space for myself downstairs has been good. Fun, even. Strolling through the house and pulling items I want to have in my new space…vintage jars to hold my pencils and pens, a small handmade bowl for paperclips, and a treasured stone from a life-changing women’s retreat. A fabric-lined wire basket hanging next to my desk and a large picnic basket rescued from our family farm in upstate New York all now have a new home in my new space.

Some of this change was hard for my husband. Months ago, we had talked about making this space the new home for our office. Turning our current office space into a bedroom. So he was a bit confused when I enlisted him to move the little secretary desk into the designated office space. Clearly, this change has been hard for him since he keeps mentioning the lost office space! Shawn will be regulated to the air mattress still, for a time.

We don’t like to think about the unthinkable hard changes. The losses. Jobs, loved ones, beloved critters. The changes that impact our lives forever. Good changes impact us eternally as well if you think about it. Retiring from an adult lifelong career, selling a house that was home for 27 years, moving to the lake to fish, boat, relax, and live out the “golden years” are all good changes and the fulfillment of long-spoken prayers.

I’ve added to my morning routine the habit of thankfulness. Having read Ann Voskamp’s, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are many years ago, and a couple times since starting the habit of logging and numbering my thankfulness in a separate notebook. When I reach for the gifts notebook each morning, I flip through the pages and allow my eyes and heart to rest on a few thankfuls recorded there. Coffee shows up regularly as a thankful, as does kitty snuggles and wagging tails. Remembered times with loved ones, here and gone, make up a large part of the written words. This morning I noticed that while many of the thankfuls recorded are similar, the circumstances around them have changed. Location, time of year, family, and friends involved, all changed. And I decided it was good. Even some of the hard changes have good to recall and recall I am determined to do. Maybe the good change is in me.