Spare Change

Sometimes change is a good thing. Like diapers, coins back from your dollar spent, spare change found in the bottom of your purse or pocket, a promotion or raise.

Sometimes it's good but stressful, like marriage, birth of a child, even divorce if it provides relief from an untenable partnering.

Sometimes change is inconvenient, like a detour or a traffic jam. And sometimes change is just plain hard, like losing a loved one, a job, a home.

Change Is Necessary

Change is necessary for growth. If trees and flowers didn't change, they could not grow. If change
couldn't happen, houses couldn't be built. And if change couldn't happen, we might be stuck in a job or relationship that just isn't working for us.

So we tend to look at changes that are our choice as good ones, and many changes that we have no control over as not as welcome. Whatever your thoughts about change, things just don't stay the same.

Change Is Inevitable

Have you ever had a change in your life that at first seemed unwelcome, but later - maybe years later - turned out to be a positive turning point in your life? I know that I have had that experience.

I've also had changes that I had no choice in that seemed impossible to overcome. Like moving with my family from the East Coast to the Midwest in the sixth grade. I didn't want to go. And it was a major culture shock. But as soon as I was old enough, it brought me to the West Coast, which has been my home ever since. I still miss my rural New York home, but I love it here. And I may not have moved to California if I lived happily in New York. And I love it here. This is home for almost 40 years now.

Change Is Constant

Change. Love it. Hate it. Avoid it. Deny it. Argue with it. It's going to happen anyway.

And it's how we view it that makes it stressful or not. The trick is to be mentally flexible and to remember that in the grand scheme of things, it's all working out OK. And that in this moment, I am OK. I am breathing, I have food in my stomach, I am well. And if I don't have that in the moment, like when I am ill, I have the memory of being well and the Faith that I am Whole in spite of appearances.

If you've been around the new thought movement at all, you've heard the phrase, "Change your thinking, change your life." That's a topic for another blog article. But if you've tried this, you know that your attitude about something can change how you approach it, which can have a ripple effect on the person or situation.

How Do You Think About Change?

Some time ago, our Reverend Edward did a class about change. He asked us some thought-provoking questions about change. I offer them here for your consideration:

• How do you cope with change?
• Why do we resist it?
• What changes are universal?
• How have you changed over the years?

What About You?

Do you enjoy change? Hate it? Tolerate it? What was the best change so far in your life? The hardest?
The one that seemed impossible but that turned out to be good for you?