Keep The Change

Full disclosure—the title came first. And as I looked at it on the page, I wasn’t quite sure where I would go with it….

I’ve gotten used to the ground shifting. Perhaps most of us have these last few years. And as we are emerging (are we?) from it all, nothing is really quite the same. Our relationships with family, and work, and even with ourselves can’t help but be different. But when the change is about more than masking or unmasking, standing close to people or not, or deciding what form of transportation to take, how do we handle it? How much are we able—and willing—to accept? To keep?

Over the last year, the makeup of my workplace has changed. People have left—on their own, or not so much so. Schedules have changed, policies have changed. And every change, whether large or small, makes a difference. Perhaps a friendly face you’ve been used to—even counted on—seeing is now gone. The flow of the work or the path that you take to get there is just a little different. The ground shifts, just a little. Or maybe a lot.

Some days, my reaction is “Stop!” Stop the ground from moving, stop the people from leaving, stop the rules from changing. Just please, please, keep all your changes. Don’t make me take them.

But where, in truth, would I be now, if nothing had ever changed? Would I have worked in sitcoms and classical music and news? Unlikely. Would I have learned some of the genuinely cool things I know now? Probably not. And would I ever have met many of the people who have profoundly changed, and continue to change, and improve, my life every day? No way.

So, when I find myself thinking “keep the change,” I remind myself that actually keeping—and embracing—the changes, whatever they are, helps me to move forward, and to fill my life in ways that I could never even imagine if everything stayed the same.

The title came first. But what I choose to do with it—that’s up to me…