Change

"Things do not change, we change". Henry David Thoreau said this, and I believe it's one of the truest things I have ever read.

I don't much care for change, unless it's the money variety, however, it seems that every day I am faced with something changing in my life, and I have to deal with it in one way or another. Some changes are good, some not so much.

Hips and waistlines expanding, gray hairs growing out of my head, skin not as smooth as it was when I was thirtysomething...these changes I believe I have handled with some grace, and with those changes generally come some form of wisdom, which is a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather still be young and beautiful, if I ever was beautiful, but getting older sure beats the alternative!

Retiring, that's a good change. I never have to get up on a cold, snowy winter morning and drive to work, then do it again at quitting time. I really love this change! On the flipside of that, I don't have a payday to look forward to every two weeks. I have social security, of course, but, trust me, it's nothing like the paycheck you are used to when you're in the working world. Advantages and disadvantantages in most everything.

When you're young, you think about getting older in a romanticized way. "The Golden Years", right? Not always. If you are blessed enough to have children, you will have times of great pride and satisfaction, and then you will, most likely, have times that you worry yourself sick about things that are happening in their lives. And most of the time, you can't do much about those things, just worry, and of course, pray. We lived our own lives, made our own mistakes, and our children have to do the same thing. And all the while, all you want to do is turn the clock back to when they were little, and you could kiss their "boo-boos" and tuck them in at night.

If your children ask for your advice, you can give them your best, but you have to stand back and let them do things their own way. Boy, that's not easy, at all! But, when they "fall down", just be there to help pick them back up, much like you did when they were learning to walk.

I'm very blessed in this, my Golden years. My children are certainly not perfect, and they've had more than their fair share of problems, but they are great "kids", and I am so very proud of them...all of them. And I love them more than there are words to describe.

And the "change"? As my children grow older, and are now raising their own children, they have so much less time to spend with us, and I really don't like this change, no, not at all! I miss them so much, and wish it could be different, but, this is the way it is. Now I have to learn how to accept this change, and find peace with the fact that this is the way it works for almost everyone, and, I suppose, this is the way it's supposed to be.

But, I don't have to like it!