Change

Even though summer still has several weeks left on the calendar, it's beginning to feel like fall. The days are still hot, but the evenings are cooling down. The trees, while not exactly changing color yet, are beginning to appear a different shade of green.



This is always a difficult time of year for me. I tend to feel my own personal cloud hanging over me as I go about my day. I know it's coming and do my best to fight it, but my seasonal depression starts moving in about now.



I've been thinking about change lately. It's common to hear people say " No one likes change". But, that's not really true, is it? Those of us who aren't making the change or are having a change forced on us don't like it, but the person making the change often does.



When I was younger and single I believed in shaking my life up by making a change. Once I changed my hair drastically. It had been down well below my shoulders and I had it cut so short that it was about 3/4" long. It did cause some change in my life and I loved it, but some of my family and friends didn't like it at all.



At one point in my life I suddenly gave up a good job that I had been at for a long time, broke the lease on my comfortable apartment and moved out of state away from family and friends. I enjoyed the planning, the excitement and the new experiences, but I left behind a lot of people who weren't so pleased. They came around eventually.



At another point in my life I started to travel a lot and see new places and ways of life. Then I met Rob and in a very short time we decided to join our lives and again there were those who didn't accept the change well. I remember being very disappointed in one of my best friends, who when I told her I was getting married and moving away, instead of being happy for me, asked " What about us?".



Now I'm in one of those change periods not of my own making. The country at large seems to be going thru changes that are making a lot of people nervous and in my own life there are several people who I've grown accustomed to seeing regularly that are moving on to different experiences.



It makes me sad to say goodbye and see them leave. It makes me worry about who will be there to fill in for them and how will I feel about that person? It makes me worry about what effect it may have on my life or that of my family. It leaves me with an uneasy feeling about the future.



I'm trying to remind myself that those who are making the changes are probably feeling excited and looking forward to the changes in their lives. I'm trying to remember to be positive when I talk with them and not to push my own feelings onto them. I'm trying to remember that I met them thru similar changes and it worked out well for me then and it can do so again.



In this difficult time of year when everything is changing, it's not always easy to accept what's going on around us. I am going to concentrate on getting Fudge ready for his Rally trial and try to get Sky ready for CGC. I am going to get to work on some of the projects I've been putting off and perhaps now would be a good time to start learning something new to keep myself busy. How do you deal with unwelcome change?