A Seasonal Reflection on Change
When I was a youngster, a summertime highlight was attending kids’ church camp. There I re-connected with an out-of-town friend named Nancie. At week’s end when we left for home, Nancie and I promised to write to one another, which we did until the busyness of a new school year supplanted summertime’s freedom.
Nancie married, and I knew her new name but lost contact with her. Many years later, a friend gifted me with a book she said she thought I’d enjoy. She told me she regularly read a column in a Christian woman’s magazine written by the book’s author, Nancie Carmichael. Surprised, I exclaimed to my friend, “Hey, I know Nancie. She was my kids’ camp friend.”
Since reading that book, which by the way, I enjoyed a lot, I’ve communicated via email with Nancie a few times and now follow her on Facebook. Her October 3rd Facebook post entitled Seasons of Change seemed especially meaningful. Nancie graciously permitted me to pass on some quotes to you.
This week in both Monday’s and Thursday’s Listening on the Journey … blog, I hope you’ll enjoy posts featuring my husband Ron’s autumn photography accompanied by quotes from my childhood friend and accomplished author, Nancie Carmichael.
“A change of season can happen so subtly. There is an imperceptible feel to the air, a crisp cooling in the evening as we reach for a sweatshirt. We round a corner to the mailbox and the brilliant red color of maple leaves takes our breath away ….”
“Our lives have seasons too. Sometimes the change to a new season is gradual and overlapping, sometimes it is dramatic and sudden. And sometimes it sneaks up on us ….”
“You see the beauty in changing relationships within your family and the constant change with new seasons, shifting, changing. Change is good—it signals growth.
And change is the one thing that we can count on. John Maxwell observed, ‘Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.’”
“Some seasonal changes are difficult …. Some … we do not seek, as it can signal the loss of what was. A doctor’s unwanted diagnosis, a health crisis …. I am reminded that we are all finite creatures, with beginnings and endings.”
(If you’d like to read Nancie’s post in its entirety, here’s the link.
May you be blessed during this seasonal change,
