21 Days of Thanksgiving Day 13 Cha, cha, changes

Since November is ( for those who live in the U.S.) the month of Thanksgiving, I want to take the next three weeks to make daily posts about things I am grateful for. There was an old hymn I heard growing up called “Count your blessings”. So since I believe gratitude begets blessings, (and we could use a little more of that,) Come with me as we go on this journey of thankfulness. 

One of the affirmations we use at my old job at Silent Unity a lot is “With God, there is always an opportunity to begin a new.” And while i truly believe this I also know it is easier to say than to believe. Change is always messy and usually painful. Those are two things most of us (myself included) tend to be averse to. “Conscience doth make cowards of us all” We are afraid of making the ‘wrong choice’ and that the mess and pain that we endure will not have a payoff and will somehow be in vain. We don’t want to look foolish. And the older we get the more so this tends to become.

But if nature is a manifestation of God (which I personally believe it is) then the opposite is true. If a seed germinates and makes its way to the surface it will go around any rocks, roots or obstacles, even if it takes several sprouts to finally emerge to the sunlight. Even in its neophyte state, the sprout has an inchoate intelligence that there is sunlight somewhere. Does the sprout reach the sunlight? Yes, no, maybe. The point is more than the seed did what it was designed to do which is the search for the sun’s light and warmth. So it is with us. Our hearts, minds and very spirits are seeds and we have been designed (I believe) to seek God’s warmth and the light of God’s son. This doesn’t end if we break the soil but is what I believe to be an ongoing (and eternal) process of growth and refinement. So we can never be too content or complacent. While it is cliche “a ship in the harbor is safe but that’s not what ships are for’…

I am grateful I am not the same person I was when I was 18. For certain there are things I miss about him, I am grateful for the changes, even the ‘bad’ ones. I know I can always ‘re-change’ those. (and believe me, I am working on them,) I am grateful for all that I have learned about myself and others through the changes I have seen. I will be a ‘work in progress’ my entire life even if I live to be 100 and I am fine with that. (especially the 100 part )