New beginning’s. They seem to be swirling all around me. A new job, a daughter’s impending move, a friend’s impending move, another friend’s divorce, an announcement of an expected baby (not mine!), a new baseball team. New beginnings can be scary if you try to control them. Well, the fact that you can’t control them is what makes them scary, you say. Yes, true, but when you surrender the need to control the outcome of the change, you gain a surprising sense of peace. Letting the change be what it will be, so-to-speak. For the last eight month’s my husband and I have been walking in faith, based upon a choice we made not to relocate for a job promotion. This decision was based upon our belief that God wanted us to stay here. This resulted in unemployment. Scary? Heck ya. Overwhelming? Only when I got too far ahead of myself with the what- if’s. I liken it to when I face the beginning of a new work out with all sorts of fretting and fussing, afraid of the unknown pain and suffering. I have learned now to just break up the work out’s into manageable pieces for my brain to handle. I mentally stay inside the segment until it’s over and then tackle the next segment, and so on. Before I know it, it’s over and what was once scary is now a celebration. Just like the faith walk we had. Trying to figure out where the path of a new beginning will lead is futile. Aren’t we better off swallowing life’s change in small pieces versus choking on the anxiety of the unknown?
Ironma'am 