As the Kaleidoscope Turns
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”–Charles Darwin
The last 72 hours have brought major changes to my world. And change, as we all know who’ve seen enough of it in our lives, is never easy.
Whether the change is for the better or for the worse doesn’t really seem to matter very much. Both are stressful and require profound adjustments on our part. We devote enormous time and energy finding our life partner and when we finally do, spend the rest of the relationship, be it short or long, trying to hammer out the ramifications of supposed wedded bliss. Having children may be an enriching experience but it throws a monkey wrench into every area of your life as well as your marriage, a reality that few are prepared for. People look forward to their “golden years” and then promptly drop dead of a heart attack because they can’t switch gears from being a corporate go-getter to a retirement community golfer.
Nothing lasts forever. Not happy times (too bad) or sad times (thank God), or jobs or careers, or feelings or moods or opinions — or people.
That last one’s the really hard thing to deal with. We kid ourselves into thinking our relationships will go on as long we do. They don’t. Death takes some of our loved ones. Disenchantment takes others. Geographic distances and personal differences rob us of some more. We outgrow our friends and vice versa. Children outgrow their parents. The list of emotional losses is endless.
If we’re in tune with the times and the seasons of life, we even outgrow ourselves and find we need to re-invent ourselves not once, but many times. We wear many hats and play many different parts, but just when we get used to it all, there’s always a new script and a new role to play when we least expect or want it.
The only thing we can do is give our best performance, keep our cool and our sense of humor. As someone once said, “Change is inevitable — except from a vending machine.”
–phoebe kate