Adapt or Avoid . . . It’s Our Choice
By the time I was twelve years old, I had lived in six different cities, moved half way across the country, lived in ten different houses and attended five different grade schools. Each move I was forced to either embrace the changes the adults in my life were making or sit sullenly in my bedroom and cry about the life I had before and the friends I so dearly missed.
At ten years old when we moved from the hustle and bustle bay area of California to the rural small town life in Oklahoma, I came face to face with the inevitable harshness of unwelcomed change. Good or bad, my life would never be the same.
What to do? One option is I could resent my parents for constantly uprooting me, hate them for wreaking havoc on my life (due to their inability to make their marriage work) and in turn allow my personal happiness to be blown away by the “winds of change” OR a second option is I could adapt and embrace my new surroundings, forge new friendships, enjoy the challenge of new horizons and make the most out of each new situation.
Fortunately, something in my adolescent state of mind, wired into my DNA and mysteriously residing in my heart; compelled me to choose the second option.
Which would prove to be a very important lesson as life would continue to throw a lot of curve balls my way. Pesky thing about “change,” it doesn’t always give you fair warning.
Like death and taxes, change is inevitable. As always it comes with some good and bad, pros and cons, ups and downs which unfortunately, are often only realized in hindsight. Having a proper perspective upfront can see us through a lot those “not so great” unexpected curve balls.
As 2020 fades into the rearview mirror, what is certain about this time of uncertainty is change is coming down the road. It will be relentless. Some will be welcomed, uplifting and fill us with joy – some transitions may be more difficult. But it is through these times we can learn to be resilient, to adapt, to learn and to grow.
This I know to be true, whether on our personal horizons or across the vast political landscape, the winds of change will never cease to blow. And while we can’t control the direction of the wind . . . we can control how we set our sails.
The Zen Den
Hello and welcome to The Zen Den. My name is Alison and while I am passionate about many things, my most inspiring driving force is human connection. Blogger, content writer, orthopedic exercise specialist, motivational speaker, international yoga pro, published songwriter, avid poker player, mom and wife are just a few of my titles. But when I do my job at NASA, I am known simply as “The Fairy Zenmother” a role I deeply love because people invite me into their space to help them find their center, relax and stretch their muscles and destress their mind. Here in the blogosphere version of The Zen Den, I invite you into my world where I will explore ideas for creating a better tomorrow and a kinder today. And hopefully, with insight, authenticity and humor; my words, observations and experiences will help you feel calm, centered, intellectually challenged and spiritually enlightened. Alternatively, if you have something you would like to see covered in The Zen Den, just let me know. Your feedback is welcome and valuable to the success of this blog. Finally, my heart is filled with gratitude to have this opportunity to share with all of you.
