Lessons from the beach - the landscape of change

I went walking on the beach with my husband and our dog. Things are starting to look really different out there; the sand is frozen, most of the birds have left and snow is collecting in the beach grass. Yet, as things on the shore change, the waves keep rolling in. I can still see the sand getting churned up a few feet out from shore.

The whole landscape reminds me of what change is like in our lives. We choose to create change and we expect an instantaneous difference, like flipping a switch. Most of the time what we get is a changing landscape. There are areas of our life that will change in the way they look or function, like the frozen sand. Our priorities will change and things will remain undone and pile up, as the snow piles up in the beach sand. And yet, there is our core, the most important things in our life, the essential parts of us, that remain unchanged as the great lake remains unchanged.

It is a fascinating process to watch change happening on the beach and in my own life. Take a few minutes and appreciate the nuances and the landscape of change in your own life.