Lifetimewell's Blog

By Heather Denniston, DC

Sometimes I live in a box. Not a cardboard throw-away that used to house somebody’s new big screen TV. I mean that figurative box that you snuggle up inside when your life is coasting along and things are safe and familiar. That box comes in many shapes and sizes and goes by a plethora of aliases; the comfort zone, the status quo, net neutral existance. You look around and say, “Life isn’t exceptional but it is pretty darn good.” Then you notice that it’s quiet…too quiet. That kind of quiet when clouds roll over your head and you say to yourself, “Huh, I wonder what that rumbling noise is?” Then with a crackle and snap your world as you know it opens up and the ground falls out from your firmly planted feet. It still goes by the same name. Change is a sudden loss of a job. Change is a poor report from the doctor. Change is scary. Change is hard.

In the book, Tuesdays With Morrie, Morrie is a wise professor suffering from the terminal repercussions of ALS. He speaks of his situation and says that he allows five minutes in the morning to feel sorry for himself and then he mentally moves past it and onto what he needs to do and experience to get the most out of his final days. I appreciated his insight because his philosophy relates to change as well. When faced with a big, scary, unanticipated changed, allowing a few minutes to say, “why me” and reflect what you’re losing is okay and a natural part of the process of moving forward. However, you then must pull yourself out of the mire and put one foot in front of the other to create the forward motion needed to navigate the eye of the storm. This forward motion is the only means by which you can emerge on the other side and look back to say, “I understand what I was supposed to learn,” or “I had no idea I was this strong,” and if you’re lucky, “I see why this all had to happen this way and what good things were a result.”

When change hit my life, like the death of my father, or the loss of a valuable friendship, did I say, “Hey, I would like my life to be thrown into upheavel so that I can learn some new things?” No, I am human. I like comfortable, not crazy. But because of the changes in my life, am I more clearer, am I stronger, and am I more prepared for the next snowball that life intends to throw in my face? Yes. Would those character strengthening transformations have happened if the thunder hadn’t rolled and the ground hadn’t opened up? Definitly not.

Change is the obstacle course that we must navigate to achieve wisdom. It is our learning playground. Change forces us outside our metaphorical box into the unknown where are senses are heightened and we can be open to learn new things. Change will ask you what you’re made of and allow you to prove to yourself that you are stronger than you ever imagined.