Big changes are headed my way. (Aren’t they always?) I’ve been looking forward to “40” because it just seemed to scream, “New Adventure!” And, now that it’s here and I can see the changes right on the horizon…well, it’s a bit unnerving.
***
I’m out of cheese and I can’t be out of cheese, Wild Child could very well starve to death. (I swear, throw a block of cheese and a water bottle into a backpack and that kid could successfully trudge across the Sahara.) So, I’m off to the grocery store. Joy.
Wild Child is happily playing “Garbage Man,” jumping on and off the front of my buggy as I careen through the aisles finding much more than cheese that I “need.” I’m not at the grocery store long before I realize something that I’ve known for a while but keep myself in constant denial about: my grocery store is rearranging.
Okay, “rearranging” is a bit ambiguous and not nearly dramatic enough.
They are not rearranging as much as they are completely renovating the store. I should have known it was going to be BIG when, weeks ago, they began to redo THE FLOORS. Now? Complete aisles are GONE and others are facing the WRONG DIRECTION. The pharmacy is in a totally different part of the store. That delightful sign meets me every time the electric doors swish open in front of my face,
“Please visit our pharmacy in it’s new location…..”I’m not really sure where that is, most days I have enough trouble timing my entrance through said electric doors with numerous small children in tow, much less walking and READING at the same time.
It’s been a bit of an inconvenience the past few weeks,
Don’t they know that I come here BECAUSE I already know where everything is?
Today, it finally got to me. Today I felt this sort of panicky almost claustrophobic feeling. I actually heard myself say out loud, about soup no less,
“I need it but I have NO IDEA where it is!”
It’s not just me. Other shoppers pass me with stressed-out looks on their faces and make snarky, understated comments like, “Wow, a little chaotic this morning, huh?” Workers at the store look at me and assure me out of the blue, “Just a little longer and it’s going to be great!” (Do I really look that distressed?)
The thing is that I know it probably will be great.
A few weeks after this is over, you’ll have figured out where everything is and you won’t even remember this. This is an inconvenience but it’s only a grocery store! It’s only a little change.
Hahahahaha
There’s the real issue: change.
People do not like change.
Even when it may offer better things down the line.
And, I’m a people. I can see changes a’comin’ that make my rearranging grocery store look like a spring day and it’s just scary.
Rita Weems says,
The important thing to keep in mind is that with change comes the invitation to embark upon a journey, a pilgrimage, start a new chapter, confront some issues you need to address. Everything feels out of sorts in the beginning. And it is. But there’s something there for you if you don’t panic. Learning to ride out feeling bewildered and frightened and tapping into the opportunity to grow is vital to the health and wholeness of every woman, because no matter who you are, there is no escaping change. -pg 76, Showing Mary
A-Girl, you've done “change” before.
Manage the panic and just do the next thing.
You know how to do this.
Maybe, some day I’ll learn how to do it without all the nuclear melt down moments.
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