Different changes

Change is in full view right now with leaf colors of orange, red and yellow blazing the Minnesota landscape. Fall, without question, is my favorite season. Modifications to my outer jacket selection of jean to lined leather, hint I might also need to modify my attitude as I shift from summer relaxed to winter hassles. My awe in the changing fall exterior, beckons an interior review.

The seasonal change into winter is tough for me and seems to be getting worse the older I become. I love summer. The long bright days, lazy lake vacations and ice cream cones on a hot summer night are a few of my favorites. I don’t like winter. The bare trees, cold temperatures and white flakes (I can’t say the four letter word yet), generates a very different temperament in my day.

A friend said to me recently, “I’m trying to mold into the wood work and you’re trying to jump out of it!" After a hearty laugh we agreed that statement was very true. As friends we share common bonds, but have many differences too. Together we weather lots of changes occurring in varied seasons of our lives. Most often, it’s our differences that offer the biggest gifts in friendship and speak into the full circle of that relationship. Very much like summer and winter.

Summer and winter share the title of seasons, which is one thing they have in common but each individual season and its changes are very different. Each one is unique in its purpose and although different, they’re dependent on each other. A hot dry summer leads to a particular kind of winter and the cycle continues.

A similar analogy applies to friends. Most of them are very different, each with their own unique purposes. Yet, year after year among the changes, friends depend on each other; trust in each others process, offering stability to the uncertainty of change and the cycle of friendship goes on.

Unlike the relationship of one season to other, friends have the ability to love us through the changes. Some of these changes are exciting like a sunny summer day, easy to love, while others are stressful like a cold winter storm, and requiring a deeper love and appreciation.

I’ve decided to change my winter attitude. Beginning today, I’m looking forward to new exciting ways to love winter and renew my respect for what it does for the other seasons. The same way my friends love me, respect my many changes and my “out of the wood work behavior”; unconditionally and without judgment.

Everything is connected together, through every season, to Be The Change.