Photo Credit Michael Thorne
Change...
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
John F. Kennedy
The days and months seem to move faster as an adult then they did as a child. I can still remember feeling like the day would never come when I would be finished school and could leave the "stress" that came with school life behind, little did I know at the time, those were the carefree easy days and the weight of the world would soon be upon me. As my oldest daughter soon will be moving into high school life, I find myself feeling the desire to hold on tight and never let go. The realization of how quick life moves and how in a blink of the eye a whole chapter in your life can be over, can become overwhelming. I have heard many parents say the words, "It feels like only yesterday....." in fact my own mother on many occassions has expressed the same melancholy when recalling my childhood, but until you have yourself experienced how it truly is, "in a blink of an eye" that life travels, it is really hard to relate. Now as my oldest daughter starts to talk of classes she wants to take, grade seven grad dress ideas and all the excitement that is sure to follow, as she starts the next school year, I can't help but wish for the simpler days of baby wipes and sippy cups and remember when the thought of high school seemed like a life time from then. I began to realize how easy it is to become fearful of change, to feel the need to fight it and to be overcome with the desire to figure out a way to stop it!
We are confronted by change all around us. Some change we embrace and wonder how we lived before it, some we move forward with a cautious optimism and fear of the unknown and some we fight with all our might even while knowing it will inevitably wash over us.
The photo above gives a glimpse into some of the changes we have seen in our community. Many like myself who were born and raised in the Langley Township remember how different things looked all those years ago. And just as I do with my daughters, it is easy to start to look back on the past, longing for the seemingly simpler times, to begin to fear the new and unknown. John F. Kennedy said: "...those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." And as they say: "Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present."
I have decided, in all aspects of my life I am making a choice to embrace the future, remember with fondness the past and live everyday knowing what a gift each day is. Despite how hard we try, time will not stop and the days move on whether we like it or not, so I am not willing to waste today wishing for yesterday or fearing tomorrow, no matter how scary having a teenage daughter is!
"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." ~Anatole France
