Navigating Change

That I am going to give birth to my third child in less than 6 weeks is of course a biggie in this department. Life as me, my husband, and our two kids know it will be blown to smithereens for a while. My body will too, of course, change in kind from that of soon-to be-hatching hen to major milking mama.

The other major change on the horizon is that I am, as of October 8, taking a 3-month hiatus from my writing obligations, private clients, and all else that swims in my working-world wake. This is BIG for me. This is SCARY. Yet it is also totally necessary and profoundly exciting at once. More on my leave in the coming weeks, but for now suffice it to say that yes, change is all over the place, and when I try to fight or ignore it, nothing ever feels right. I am humbly shown over and over again that I just can’t escape it.

You know what? None of us can. Even if it feels like your life is crawling along, forever the same, with very little stuff on the outside to show for any flashy-type metamorphosis, you are always quite beautifully, and often alarmingly, in flux. Trust in this.

Seriously, how do you deal with and feel about change?

There are those change junkies out there who can’t stop seeking the newest, most thrilling, most different thing around the bend. Then there are their opposites. Where do you fall along this spectrum?

It is highly important to know yourself in this regard, to feel out and notice how you behave in the face of subtle (or radical) change. It has everything to do with your sense of wellness and of security in being able to ride out any storm or curve ball of interest that life offers.

I remember a lyric from the old film Love in the Afternoon, where in the beginning along with shots of lovers kissing all over Paris, the line goes, “…Even the birds and the bees do it.” Here the reference is to falling in love. But let’s extend it to change. Every single one of us does it, right? So why balk? Why quake? Why fight? I am actually relieved to be reminded that all of you out there are changing too.

Hence, here is my plain and simple mantra of the moment, FLOW WITH IT. I think I’ll be blowing this up and putting it all over my house in the coming weeks. Best message a woman in my condition can get, and probably not so shabby for you either…

In sweet change,

Maggie