It is a very good thing to recognize that things change. Like the reality of mortality, knowing intellectually that things change is not the same as knowing in our core that changes continue.
Once someone begins to talk about how short life is, they recognize mortality. And once we genuinely appreciate a sense of well being, we have come to terms with the essential reality of change. I finally know that when difficulties prevail there are better times ahead. I also recognize that when everything is great, nothing is static and, therefore, I seize the opportunity to fully appreciate a sense of well being. It did not arrive without cost.
I had pushed myself too far for too long before letting go of stressors after finding myself in the hospital in mid-September, seeming as if I'd had a heart attack but testing as a "pristine" heart. Excellent news. So why the hospital? Exhaustion.
That was when I realized that I could make change happen. An epiphany.
Who knew that we can decide on change, not just encounter it? There are enough surprises in life that take us down a different road. How exciting it is to recognize how much power we have within to effect change, decide what it will be, and make it happen!
When, after 10 years, we were able to lure the best sales manager we ever had back to The Shopper, I was able to "let go and let Richard!" I love doing just my own work again. When we are doing what we love to do and find joy in it, we are where we need to be. It is why we hear peels of laughter from and around Richard Hassell; it is why I am listening to music again.
I am feeling so good that I will be able to handle that Christmas card that we all get - you know the one that lets us know that John and Mary just bought another vacation home in Switzerland, their daughter is engaged to the King of Siam and John is back to his quarterback weight at Notre Dame! And I wouldn't change places with them.
I am breathing in the reality of my great good fortune of loving to go to work and being with people I care about and admire and then looking forward to going home at the end of the day to a husband I like, not just love. I'm thrilled with my children and grandchildren and have both old and new friends, great neighbors, doctors I trust and a firm belief in a loving God.
I am feeling so good that I will be able to handle that Christmas card that we all get - you know the one that lets us know that John and Mary just bought another vacation home in Switzerland, their daughter is engaged to the King of Siam and John is back to his quarterback weight at Notre Dame! And I wouldn't change places with them.
Sometimes there is a central change we can make in our lives that removes whatever it is that is blocking our sense of well being. It often leads to a chain reaction.
I am as happy this very minute as I have ever been. I wish the same for you.
Jean Loxley-Barnard has been a writer all her life and studied both sociology and psychology at George Washington University where she earned a B.A. Her company, The Shopper, Inc., encompasses all the Loxley-Barnard family publications - The Shopper Magazines and Doctor to Doctor Magazine. She has been in the advertising, consulting and publishing business for 39 years.