Transition and Transformation 8/21/2022

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

I have a love/hate relationship with change.  I suppose most people do so I don’t suppose I just shared with you any particularly earth shaking information.  It is slightly ironic that there are times I find lack of change very tedious and other times that I find the presence of any slightest inkling of variation utterly abhorrent. I guess there is no pleasing me.  Like right now, while I am in a season of change, I love parts of it and loathe others.  What an enigma I am.  This strange era has brought lots of things to mind that you will now have the privilege or misfortune (depending on how you look at it) to read about.  Since I shall be covering both sides of the spectrum perhaps if you are a lover of change or one that despises it you’ll find something to relate to in my literary wanderings.

Should I start with the positive or the negative?  Maybe I should go with the positive first that way, hopefully, you can get vested enough in whatever I am saying that you will keep reading before I begin to moan and groan about things, and you begin to be too put off. I will state the obvious here and try not to dwell too long on it. Autumn is coming. If you have stumbled upon any of my blogs there is a chance that you know my love affair with the season. I love everything about it. I don’t have to get into what all that entails for many reasons. First of all, you know what the characteristics of the season are so no need for me to spew all the details at you. But perhaps I can relate one traitl about the fall, or at least my fall, that you might not have considered. Honestly, even I didn’t consider it until only a few days ago.  Some have you may have read that we have a feeder for deer in our backyard. We have it there solely for our own enjoyment.  While we aren’t opposed to hunting, this feeder’s purpose is for our entertainment in being casual observers to the goings on of the fauna on our property.  Now, during the spring and summer we don’t have the feeder out as the food supply is plentiful. But just the other day I saw movement amongst the thick forest lining the edge of our property.  There were at least three, possibly 4 deer casually moseying right outside our back yard.  This is roughly the number we would tend to see around our feeder at a time. I think they know it is heading toward that time of year.  They were just making sure they kept an eye out on the place they knew that last year a free meal was available. And really, who can blame them?  Who doesn’t love a free meal?  I must admit I was pleased to see the flash of a wagging white tail in the brush and even more so when I saw there was more than one.  Watching deer frolic and play was a delight last year and I am glad to know they have made a note to where they should return.  You haven’t really experienced all nature has to offer until you have watched a spotted fawn get a case of the zoomies whilst her mother makes the exact face most moms make when their offspring seemed to have lost their ever-loving minds.

This next highlight of change is probably terribly trivial to some of you. In fact, some of you may find this some crossbreed of ridiculous and unpleasant. I like that we are nearing the season of decorating.  I am already having to restrain myself from putting out fall décor.  And while it is my favorite season that isn’t what necessarily makes me love decorating for it so much. I just love decorating. If I could afford to finance a monumental shopping spree I would buy décor for every holiday, season or simply day of moderate significance and decorate my house accordingly.  And in the fall is when I get to begin the season of decorating because I decorate for the time of harvest, and I know that Christmas is coming which is joyous because I know that means even more consecutive decorating. This change of the calendar can stay on repeat as far as I am concerned…well at least when it comes to wreaths, garlands, and other festive adornments.

I have rambled about the positive and now I will give you the negative. My child is back to school. This is difficult.  To send your child off to the care of others is not easy. To know your child is growing up and needing you less and less is not easy.  The busyness that comes with the school year is taxing. The way every free minute gets eaten away with both lovely and not-so-lovely things at this time of year is less than thrilling.  Yes, sometimes those moments are filled with good things. Sometimes they are filled with simply necessary things. And sometimes things to be done are downright but there is never a moment to waste even when you would really like to waste a moment. 

But such is life.  Time waits for no man.  Let’s see, are there any other old adages I have neglected that apply here?  Just like the seasons I love as well as dislike will always be arriving and departing, I guess most things will have to change like it or not.  It can’t be fall or Christmas year-round and, in thinking of another saying that is appropriate, babies don’t keep.  Fledglings must fly from nests; time must pass, and things must grow and become better versions of what they once were.  I suppose we should all want that for ourselves. To be forever growing and becoming better.  Nobody likes a stagnant pool.  Well, mosquitos do.  And if there was ever inspiration to embrace change, nobody wants to be one of them!  Perhaps that is what I needed to tell myself to really find the silver lining in all types of change.  Caterpillars aren’t near as beautiful as butterflies.  Seeds aren’t as wonderous to behold as a tree.  To paraphrase my beloved C.S. Lewis, to be good eggs we must be hatched or go bad.  It is far more eloquent than an insect metaphor but just as true.