Embracing Change

This last year for me has been an interesting one– however I have just had the best week celebrating getting another year older with those I love and it has made me realise just how much my life has improved.   I have spent a lifetime working hard and often having zero time to spend with those I love and doing the things that bring me joy. I also reflect and wonder if the energy I’ve expended got the outputs it deserved, or if in fact I was simply doing things because it was what I had always done. I knew nothing different and never had time to look up!! I just kept going and going since that is what you do….until  you don’t!

I now have the energy and space to reflect on what I have. I have a son, his wife and wider family that make me beyond proud. They are beautiful, accomplished people that even now I don’t have enough time with but bring me joy daily as I have time to listen to their stories and share their days with them.  They are kind, have, balanced and love those around them…. they are everything you could want from your nearest and dearest. 

I have incredible friends; I said recently to one of them ‘oh I’m lucky to have such kind friends’. Her reply was no your friends are simply a reflection of you since as a child her mother had told her, ‘show me your friends and it will show me you’…. very wise words.  These friends have made such an effort to show me how much I’m loved (In fact one of them is still chasing a missing parcel around the county since it wasn’t delivered for my birthday!). Another one of them wrote words that made me cry, and another bought me the best gift I’ve ever been given.  Others pitched up with Champagne, since it’s the only alcohol I’m drinking this year!  I’ve had messages from around the world, from friends in the Caribbean and Canada. I have moved to a beautiful new home, I have returned to formal learning and have exciting things ahead.

So why am I writing this – it isn’t simply to gloat, but to reassure people that change, which is inevitable, is positive even if you were not sure it was what you wanted when it happened.  It can enable you to live the life you want to be living and will certainly expose the wonderful people you have around you.

I would urge everyone to take a moment from their daily grind, reflect and let go even if that feels a bit scary since its jumping into something new that is brave and courageous, and I can certainly testify that it brings joy, contentment and opens up the world.  The American Psychologist Abraham Maslow said that “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety”. I think what he was trying to share was that in order to develop we need to take risks and move away from what we believed was our comfortable place.  Do it, I did and wild horses couldn’t drag me back!