Rolling with Changes
When I first got married, my husband was always teasing me about the arrangement of furniture. He’d leave for work and return to a whole new layout. I would start to vacuum and suddenly get inspired to begin moving things. Voila! It was great fun and kept me thinking. It helped me to make the older things feel new and useful again. It is like bringing out an old favorite photo that was packed away; the old toy that was tucked in a box. Oddly enough, it was something that has gone on over the years.
I recall a set of dishes that I loved were no longer pretty to me. I packed them away. Out of sight; out of mind until many years later I rediscovered them. Oh how beautiful and lovely they were. Again I admired the colors and delicate pattern. Now I use them regularly.
When our children would come home from school, they knew that I was in a creative mode. Mom had rearranged things and often given them a new chair in their room. When our son turned about 10, I noticed he too would be rearranging his room. Following this I noticed that his grades would go up; he’d take on new challenges. Change is great fun when we can be the ones in charge. It is not fun when something affects us that we have no control about, namely–illness, financial issues, and the like.
I just rearranged the whole office this past weekend with the help of a friend who had the brawn! I am starting a number of projects that require clear thinking and organization so it figures I would duplicate what I had to see and work with every day. For me, changing the setup really helps.
The next project is to clean and organize a bookcase. I need to categorize the books by topics and discard obsolete paper in folders. Our minds work to filter and remember through pathways. We can help create and make our memories more complete with our daily practices of removing clutter.
When children are small they already are taking in learning patterns that will give them basic frameworks for the future. When our oldest child would play with matchbook cars, I made several cardboard layouts of villages that he could drive his car around. There were parking lots and streets and driveways . The cars had to park in the lines and back around. He’d line them up and order them by color. His playfulness helped him develop patterns of color, sizing trucks from cars, and grouping them in different ways. He was already adding and subtracting without even realizing it. He was also learning flexibility and to think outside the lines.
We all need to learn how to be flexible too. If there is no place to park, what do we do? We don’t scream at others, we don’t act out. We simply look for optional parking spots even if it means walking from a block away. If there is no immediate resolution to a problem, how does one find one? We learn to move things around! We rearrange appointments, shift cars, change work hours, ask for options, and/or pay in installments. We literally flow from one change to another. Staying in the moment if healthy, but we need to learn the best ways to do that.
We also learn to wait. We wait for the line to decrease in size; hopefully, with patience. We save for the bicycle, the toys, the cars, or the new carpeting. We learn that things have value and we try to save what we already have purchased. This period of waiting helps us relish and appreciate.
I now realize that the rolling with changes makes us as individuals, better. We learn to accommodate and put other people first. Material things are seen as delightful and enjoyable. Often they are not necessities, but pleasures. We begin to help one another and see relationships are more relevant. We learn to have priorities that help us grow.
So my prayer to help you today is to “roll”. Let the disappointments roll away. Make room in your heart! In your thinking, try to “roll” into a better place. Peace for the day! Delight in Living!