STRE-E-E-E-TCH...
Anyone who has ever grown or matured in any capacity is aware of the feeling of being stre-e-e--e-e-e-e-etched!
Anytime something new or different (even a good thing) is required of a person, the first reaction is to curl up in the fetal position and hang on to the "old" way of doing things. To really embrace change means letting go and feeling the stre-e-e-e-e-tch, no matter how uncomfortable or scary.
It seems this is a season of transition for many people in my life. I am no exception.
Transition (simply put, change in circumstances) requires that we react differently. The circumstance is foreign, so the reaction to circumstance is foreign to us.
I've noticed this strange reaction to a strange circumstance tends to shed light on issues of identity.
eg. If I am behaving strangely, is this who I am or was the way I used to behave really who I am...is one more right or wrong than the other? Which person am I? Which do I want to be?
If that is a confusing paragraph, let me use a more concrete example.
A stay-at-home mom has her youngest child enter school full-time. She has spent the last 10 years caring for small children, running her home and being...well, a mom! Now she has no children to care for, and has all day to think about things she hadn't had time to consider before.
This may cause discomfort or a feeling of emptiness.
This uneasiness is enough to make a person question their identity.
What should she do to ease her discomfort?
Should she begin to take in small children and begin an in-home day-care to ease her sense of discomfort with this loss of identity as "mom" or "care-giver to small children"
OR
Should she use the time, embrace the discomfort/despair/confusion and figure out who this "new" person/identity is?
I tend to side with confusion.
Big Surprise!
So in this season of transition, while I figure out this 30 year old me, I may be a little confused, a little uncomfortable, and perhaps even a little strange(r).
But I'm not afraid, and if part of growth is growing pains...so be it, because what's on the other side of death is life, and what's on the other side of winter is spring!
11Look around you: Winter is over;
the winter rains are
over, gone!
12Spring flowers are in blossom all over.
The whole world's a choir--and singing!
Spring warblers are filling the forest
with sweet arpeggios.
13Lilacs are
exuberantly purple and perfumed,
and cherry trees
fragrant with blossoms.
Oh, get up, dear friend,
my fair and beautiful lover--come to me!
Song of Songs 2:11-13
The Message
Anyone who has ever grown or matured in any capacity is aware of the feeling of being stre-e-e--e-e-e-e-etched!
Anytime something new or different (even a good thing) is required of a person, the first reaction is to curl up in the fetal position and hang on to the "old" way of doing things. To really embrace change means letting go and feeling the stre-e-e-e-e-tch, no matter how uncomfortable or scary.
It seems this is a season of transition for many people in my life. I am no exception.
Transition (simply put, change in circumstances) requires that we react differently. The circumstance is foreign, so the reaction to circumstance is foreign to us.
I've noticed this strange reaction to a strange circumstance tends to shed light on issues of identity.
eg. If I am behaving strangely, is this who I am or was the way I used to behave really who I am...is one more right or wrong than the other? Which person am I? Which do I want to be?
If that is a confusing paragraph, let me use a more concrete example.
A stay-at-home mom has her youngest child enter school full-time. She has spent the last 10 years caring for small children, running her home and being...well, a mom! Now she has no children to care for, and has all day to think about things she hadn't had time to consider before.
This may cause discomfort or a feeling of emptiness.
This uneasiness is enough to make a person question their identity.
What should she do to ease her discomfort?
Should she begin to take in small children and begin an in-home day-care to ease her sense of discomfort with this loss of identity as "mom" or "care-giver to small children"
OR
Should she use the time, embrace the discomfort/despair/confusion and figure out who this "new" person/identity is?
I tend to side with confusion.
Big Surprise!
So in this season of transition, while I figure out this 30 year old me, I may be a little confused, a little uncomfortable, and perhaps even a little strange(r).
But I'm not afraid, and if part of growth is growing pains...so be it, because what's on the other side of death is life, and what's on the other side of winter is spring!
11Look around you: Winter is over;
the winter rains are
over, gone!
12Spring flowers are in blossom all over.
The whole world's a choir--and singing!
Spring warblers are filling the forest
with sweet arpeggios.
13Lilacs are
exuberantly purple and perfumed,
and cherry trees
fragrant with blossoms.
Oh, get up, dear friend,
my fair and beautiful lover--come to me!
Song of Songs 2:11-13
The Message
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