Change

I apologize for not blogging in a few weeks.. the end of school is a busy time. My goal was to blog once a week and I am determined to stick with that goal.

At 5:30 this morning I said good bye to a dear friend. She and her husband were instrumental in getting our family connected when we first moved to Red Deer nearly 2 years ago. A few months ago when she shared that they were leaving I was devastated. Making real friends as an adult is much more challenging then making friends when your 8. This person made a point of introducing us to lots of different people and made a point of spending time with us, showing us around, sharing all of their favourite hot spots, restaurants, etc. Truly they were a Godsend.

Within a month or two a relative that I am very close to called and told me that her and her husband were moving to Hong Kong.

Everyone knows that change isn't easy. We cannot avoid change but we can decide what our reaction and attitude towards it will be. I have heard it be said that it takes either a minute, an hour or a day to process change. I know that for me it's a day. I need a full day to process situations. That full day usually involves going to sleep and waking up (either a nap or overnight). Because I know this about myself I don't allow myself to feel pressure about making decisions right away. Over the last couple of years, I have worked though managing stressful situations better and working towards controlling my emotions. It's a working progress.

It takes a lot more to stress me out now a days. For me a big part of that has been learning to let things go.. to show people grace when they do something I don't like and seeing past comments to the heart of the person. I value the relationships in my life and want to be that person that is not easily offended..(that is my goal this year) and one that is quick to forgive and make others feel like they matter. At the end of the day isn't that what we all really want?

Thought for the day: It takes a lot of work to hate someone. Forgiveness is very freeing. Try it sometime.