Transition, Forward Motion,
Change,
Time to Rearrange
It all means that the way it is,
is not the way it is going to be.
We know the inevitable change sits,
waiting around the next corner.
There is no surprise that it waits.
The details are obscure, the timing a bit of a blur.
The inevitability of that certain change
encompasses a wide and varied range.
It is an emotional exercise of holding in your heart
what is familiar and what is old,
while opening it to something new.
The effort to gain
your footing....your balance
can, for a time, make you blue.
We often label those times as adventures,
to hide from ourselves and others
that it isn't all that much fun.
Little scary, quite intimidating
But when you mix those things
in with exciting opportunities,
with possibilities, limited only by
the height of our courage
and
the width of our imagination,
hope grows.
Change can be bad.
Change can be good.
Change is greeting a difference,
welcomed or unwelcomed.
Coping skills, in times such as these, are
wrapped up in the Hoping Skills you choose to embrace.
Hope, it carries
you through the first
steps of a new experience.
The hope that sees
you through each challenge,
whether it be involving new relationships,
a career move, a chance for higher learning,
a dream long dreamed, one you have been yearning for,
more years than you can imagine,
finally coming true.
A fresh place to call home.
A tiny new person arriving
you can't quite believe
you get to
call and love as your own.
The hope that believes
for a better tomorrow
in a day that went
terribly wrong.
The hope that sustains you
through a dark night to meet the morning,
singing a new song.
The hoping skills are the coping skills
to have at the ready when
life's transitions shift.
Stand firm in whatever place you find yourself;
in a cozy nook or
a wide, unfamiliar, open space.
If we are willing to accept it, in each local, we will be met and covered by God's loving, unshifting grace.
