Growing Pains

There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss; and there is no loss without pain. Every change involves a loss of some kind: You must let go of old ways to experience the new. We fear these losses, even if our old ways were self-defeating, because like a worn out pair of shoes, they were at least comfortable and familiar.

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

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As one who gets sentimental over a "worn out pair of shoes", I immediately recognized myself in Warren's description of someone resistant to change. But change is what the Christian life is all about - allowing God to strip you of the old self in order to clothe you with the new. I don't mind getting new clothes - I just don't like parting with the old ones:)

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This recliner rocking chair has been in my house since before my life began until last spring when it got taken to Goodwill - 27 years together and now some stranger is sitting in it! I was quite adamant about keeping it, but mom was quite adamant about removing it from her home. To her it was ugly, but to me it was full of memories. I liked running my fingers over the rough textured 70's gold, brown, and rust stripes. I remember my sister and I burying Aunt Becky with pillows in it when I was probably 5 or 6, and its where my mom usually sat to nurse my younger sister, and apparently me and my older siblings as well. I liked sitting in it when I was home from college because it was cozy and familiar - it was home.

posing w/ the recliner rocking chair and a cypress knee that used to adorn my grandparents' house

To alleviate the pain of separation, mom suggested I take a picture to remember it by, so I did, and began taking pictures of every other object in the house that I had a sentimental attachment to as well - there were many. A great idea I thought, and one I plan to continue putting into practice - so many life stories those photos contain.

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Lucinda Matlock

I went to the dances at chandlerville,
And played snap-out at Winchester.
One time we changed partners,
Driving home in the moonlight of middle June,
And then I found Davis.
We were married and lived together for seventy years,
Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children,
Eight of whom we lost,
ere I had reached the age of sixty.
I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick,
I made the garden, and for holiday
rambled over the fields where sang the larks,
And by Spoon River gathering many a shell,
and many a flower and medicinal weed-
Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys.
At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all,
And passed to a sweet repose.
What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,
Anger, discontent, and drooping hopes?
Degenerate sons and daughters,
Life is too strong for you-
It takes life to love life.

by Edgar Lee Masters
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Growing up is hard, but that is LIFE. Perhaps I make it harder by being so sentimental and resistant to change, but I'm glad to feel it so strongly. Life is good!

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