Yesterday in Texas the temperature was pushing 80 degrees. It was a humid 80 too. We turned our air conditioning back on. Today, there is a strong north wind and it is currently in the mid-30s. The problem with this whole weather thing is the lack of transition. It is tough to go from shorts and flip-flops to sweatshirts and gloves with no transitional weather in between.
I feel the same kind of abruptness with Thanksgiving to Christmas. We barely finished our Thanksgiving meal and drove home from out of town; only to discover all our neighbors out hanging Christmas lights and installing their holiday yard displays. (I can’t even speak about the Christmas-decorations-before-Thanksgiving people). So we rolled into the driveway, hopelessly behind in the changing of the seasons.
Life seems filled with both subtle and abrupt transitions. When our kids were little, the transitions came so fast: milk to solid food, crawling to walking, diapers to potty trained, preschool to elementary. But truthfully, they’ve never stopped transitioning. Our daughter married with a home and career of her own; our middle son about to graduate from college this month, then home for a transitional few months before he’s out in the real world; our high school son transitioning from football season to off season sports; driving now, oh my!
I see people all around me adjusting to transitions of health, job issues, marital status, empty nests that get full again for a season…even from life to death. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it this way, “Nothing is secure but life, the transition, the energizing spirit.”
It’s true. Life seems to be mostly a series of transitions. Some I handle better than others; some I face grumbling and bitter; some I welcome with open arms; some I fervently argue with, to no avail. So today, as I adjust to 30 degree weather and the Christmas season upon me, I pray for God’s soothing spirit to ease today’s transitions.
Dr. Cindy Ryan 