I've been away from my blog for some months, I had written a post back in Jan that had a tech error and I got frustrated and busy. I have kept up on writing my novel which has given me plenty to do, though life with 5 children often keeps me pretty busy.
The past year has been an intense time of growth that I've been really happy about. A lot of it ended up really surprising me. There were parts of myself and my personality I thought were static, things that belonged to my identity and were not going to change.
I thought about listing these things, but that is really only relevant to me, and I know what's different.
So, perhaps "Dear Anonymous Reader", you feel there are growth edges in your life you feel you cannot overcome, you may feel that you have flaws that are a part of who you are, and not simply a part of your response to life. I would like to tell you, that you have the ability to change any part of you that you desire.
It can take quite a shaking though. A year ago, I had different friends, different kids, and different responsibilities. Then, my life went through some radical changes and instead of clinging to recreating what I had before all those quakes, I just moved through them and changed along with it. I promise, given enough time, your going to go through radical changes in life too. Some things, I made a conscious effort to be different about, other things happened because I needed to adapt.
I dislike change, probably many of us do, but I can get deeply anxious about changes in life. I think for a long time, one of my hindrances to growth was the fear of things being different. I was so afraid of having different friends- "what if I end up lonely?' I was afraid to become a foster parents- "what if I couldn't take the stress?" Career choices, Relationships, I often cling to things remaining as they were.
Then it happened for me and let me tell you, I wish I had been more willing to earthquake my life sooner. The thing about moving with new things is that once you do so, once you learn to move with the flow of life, you have a lot more peace.
No difficulty is forever, no pain, no stress, no loneliness, no hurts-these are the things I fear- but they are temporary, and I'm finally getting that through my noggin. You can also find, in the middle of things that make you feel hurt, stressed, etc- there are joys that you wouldn't have noticed if you remained stationary.
There are always joys to find- no darkness is impenetrable, light always finds a way through.