Tag Archives: understanding seasons of change

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Finding Hope & Peace after the Shock & Awe of Painful Experiences

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Last week was the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

I wasn’t alive yet on that day, but immediately my mind thinks of events that have filled my lifetime that bring shock and awe, experiences that are burnt into our consciousness so deeply that it only takes one of our senses to catch a glimpse or a wiff, or a sound and we are instantly transported back in time.

Days like September 11, 2001.

  • Days that are impossible to understand and process.
  • Days that remind us who we are and what we stand for.
  • Days where strangers become friends and family.
  • Days where we grieve and work together.

Days that interrupt the life we have always known and distinctly mark it as the past, leaving us no choice but to create an alternate reality.

Days that we are all reminded that we were created to be a part of a community.

When I think of the days where shock and awe bring us together, I also think of days where painful events alienate individuals from the community we need:

Days we live through these words and the emotions and realities that go with them:

  • Bankrupt
  • Infertile
  • Betrayed
  • Orphaned
  • Mental Illness
  • Cancer
  • Terminated
  • Deceased

And then I think of the people that have pushed through the loss, the confusion, and the pain.  …People that grew wiser, and softer and stronger and turned the shock and awe into a defining moment.

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Has life ever handed you one of those weeks?

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Have you ever had one of those weeks?

A week filled with news like this:

  • One more friend is diagnosed with cancer while others are in the midst of the battle
  • Several friends say their last goodbyes to loved ones that have left the earth
  • One more marriage is on the rocks
  • One more job loss
  • Another horrible diagnosis

While the world is focused on:

  • Terrorists
  • War
  • Refugees
  • Ugly politics

Have you ever felt shaken AND stirred?  Where the pain in the world becomes so loud it hurts?  This week was one of those weeks.

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Looking Back: 7 Times You Should and 7 Times You Should Not

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As I drove into the driveway, I noticed something in the window of the garage door.

When I drove in and closed the door, I realized that the “something” was the largest butterfly I’d ever seen.

He was pressed against the glass looking back at the world he had come from, and although he could see it, he could not touch it.  (It is important to note that this was a “Louisiana garage” – a carport with a roof and a garage door on the front, a wall on one side, a fence and open skies on the other side, a covered walkway and more open skies on the rear.)

This butterfly was so focused on looking back that he did not realize that the open air was just beside him and he could fly away at anytime.

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Back in the Sandbox: On Change and Expat Life

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A short time ago, I wrote about some of the major adjustments of our recent move to become first-time expats in a big sandbox and shared that the hardest time for me after any move consistently occurs four and six months after each move.  (I’m in that zone now.)

Three weeks ago we were blessed with a two-week vacation to see the people we love, and to do some traveling.  Now everyone is asking if it is even harder to go back to the sandbox.

Yes – I’m tired.  I think that’s from the traveling and the heat and humidity we returned to.

No – I did not miss my “cloak of invisibility” – I did not dig it out once the entire time we were gone.

IMG_0229Yes – I still miss blue skies and puffy clouds.  (I took this photo of puffy clouds on the plane.)

No – I didn’t think I missed driving that much, until I saw my car.  When I saw it I literally had to go sit in it, and open the sunroof and imagine I was cruising down the road on day filled with bright sunshine and cool breezes. (Unfortunately, driving it will have to wait until the next visit with the hopes that there will be more time re-tag it and get it out of storage.)

However, many of my friends said that after a summer away from this place, returning was harder than usual.  (…And not being able to load their children in a car and take off go wherever and whenever they want to, is one of the reasons for their struggle.)

Yesterday as I sat at the grocery store waiting an hour for my bus, not being able to drive hit home at a higher level: