Change and more change

This past weekend we celebrated my father-in-law’s 79th birthday. On the drive home I thought about the multitude of changes he has experienced in his seventy nine years. Including the new changes he is forced to experience because of varying health conditions. None of us are immune to change and then more change. One of my husband’s famous sayings is, “We don’t like change”. We don’t necessarily have to like change, it’s what we learn from it that truly changes us.

One of the definitions of change in the dictionary is to transform or convert. I can relate to those simple yet complicated words. We had to transform our life many times throughout Michael’s illness. Each conversion definitely not easy, in fact just recently demonstrated in our change of address. In every change we grew beyond our limited view, learning things we wouldn’t have had we not accepted the call for transformation.

Michael was our change leader, which wasn’t what I thought initially as we were inundated with changes. I naturally moved into the matriarchal role of, the one in charge, leading my family through these many changes. On the other hand, Michael thought he was in charge and the boss of me! The truth is Michael had to change the most because of his rare disease. I think innately he knew in order to avoid SIOD be who he was, he had to take charge and be a leader. Amidst all the changes he still had this infectious desire to have fun. That helped him never lose sight of something bigger and better beyond all the change and more change. Now as I look over those years, I see the truth of who was really in charge. I thought I was the one teaching him, but actually he was the one teaching me.

Priceless gifts are offered through change, from a variety of sources. From a boy who put the cha-cha-cha in every happy birthday song to the man we sang happy birthday to last weekend. Each one providing wisdom to us by the changes they encountered in their life, ultimately teaching us to Be the Change.