“Embrace the Change – Grow in new directions.  Explore, discover, reach and risk.  Change creates an energy inside of you that you didn’t realize you had.”  Scatter Joy March 2014 calendar, by Kathy Davis

Spring is a time to embrace change… and I’m not necessarily one to EMBRACE change, ok admittedly, I might be more agreeable to embrace change if I was at the helm of that change, or at least asked to participate in the discussion / ideas / reasons behind the change.  That’s called “getting buy in”… and who DOESN’T want to be involved in that stage?  I don’t know about you, for me that helps to understand the “why” behind the decision… unless of course my role isn’t to understand the “why” and to instead simply execute the orders.  {And in that case, I might seek out a different role.  But that’s a different blog post… }

So how do I move from revolting against change to embracing change?

I do my best to view it as an opportunity.  I ask myself “OK… are you ready?  Here is your opportunity to look change square in the face and see it for what it is… an opportunity.”  So practically speaking, how do I do this?

I remember Spring… the season that emerges along with the orange glowing sun as it pulls sprouts of life from the soil, the buds grow on the branches and pull forth life to bare trees.

The sun emerges from behind dark clouds, a little more each day… the yellow-orange glow warming the ground, a bit more each day… ice melts and the dew drops feed the ground, a touch more each day.

And thus change occurs… slowly and assuredly… change occurs.

Looking at change in the positive way is an opportunity to see things differently… which leads to accepting change, which leads to growing … and growing to discovery.

The discovery itself is the icing on the cake.  So that quickly, we go from being fearful of change to being excited about discovery.

That said our Southern California Spring has been coming a little faster than we are prepared for… the weather has turned warmer and buds are blossoming earlier than usual… and for the purposes of this metaphorical pondering, this phenomenon has provided yet another opportunity to grow in that way. 

Sometimes change happens overnight… or maybe we just were not paying attention, until we were.

Either way, as the adage goes…

“The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change.”

– Heraclitus