A Time for Change

I’m pretty sure I complained a few weeks ago when I had to take my kids shopping for school supplies. I imagine those of you who know me well would happily confirm that with enthusiasm. The lists of specific items kill me, but that’s a whole bugaboo that I don’t want to get into. The truth about school supplies is that I LOVE THEM. I love all of them. I love a freshly sharpened pencil. I love an empty composition book; a stack of lined paper is even better. A clean binder full of clean paper with a pen tucked in the pocket – bestill my low blood pressure driven but still definitely beating heart. Everything seems so fresh and new, so full of possibility, so ready for magical learning and change.

These moments happen often in life, when we really are ready for magical learning and change, but I don’t think they’re quite as clear as a fresh binder with clean paper and a pen. Sometimes we don’t recognize them when they arrive.

We don’t realize that the overwhelm that we feel is screaming at us to see if our choices match up with our values. We don’t realize that our apathy has really gone on for a very long time and is a cover for the anger we feel at work. We don’t realize that the indecision we feel about what to do next is just a way of stalling, and stalling, and stalling to hold off the fear of taking the wrong next step, of looking foolish or making some other catastrophic error we’ve always “known” we would eventually make. We don’t realize that our lives are settled in the patterns that they are in because we allow it. We forget that we have more choices than we could ever acknowledge. We convince ourselves that we are stuck because it feels safe, even if it is miserable or even just mediocre.

But friends fall approaches, the buses are rolling. Change is in the air. The stifling heat of summer is giving way to temperatures that make thinking and motion less of a chore, at least some days it is. Birds are flying. Squirrels are gathering bits. School supplies are hugely discounted. All the signs are there. Magical learning is going on. Change is a possibility. Your clean binder is there (okay, maybe on the shelf at the store, but it’s there).

Rather than delay one more time, what would happen if you decided that right now is your time to be new? What would happen if you decided to believe the children returning to school when they show you that there is always room to learn, to grow, to change the path that we’re on, to write a new tomorrow on a clean blank page?

Are you ready? If you’re are, let me share a little magical learning with you and wish you Happy New Year.