Changes

The other day I found myself at a party in which there were many folk I hadn’t seen in a long time.  As I surveyed the faces sitting around the room I was a bit surprised by the new wrinkles I saw … new contours of the face … some with new found peace … others with eyes that betrayed the sorrow of past years.  It was then that it dawned upon me – there are precious few things one can truly count on in this life – one of those things is change. 

While some people seek change and others avoid it like the plague, change is concomitant with this journey we call life.  Today, as I look into the mirror, I see the story of 52 winters.  It is a story written with many chapters of love, laughter, success, and victory.  It is a story punctuated by a few chapters of loneliness, failings, and the agony of defeat.  It is my story.  I have earned every grey hair, wrinkle, and scar.  You have a story as well.  

Listening to the stories shared around the table at the party I am struck by just how much people have changed … how much they have grown … in knowledge and as people.  I am reminded that, like mine, their story is still being written. 

Through the sun sets, the passing moons, and even the fleeting winters – every soul around the table is in transition – sifting ideas, hopes, beliefs, dreams, traditions, and things held most dear. You are changing as well. Change comes with living – we can’t control it.  How we change … for the good or for the worse … THAT is what we can control.