Veterans Glass City Skyway Bridge in Toledo
By Sr. Julie Myers
New and improved! We read that tagline often on many of our products these days. It seems to be the way of our materialistic society. If you have any tiny observational skill, you probably have noted that change is inevitable. Change is all around us and happens constantly. It seems to be in the air we breathe; in the various forms of creation we gaze upon for enjoyment and healing and life; it is the foundation of our social structures; it is crucial for the life of any business to thrive. Even our electronic culture is all about “upgrading” – what used to be desktop ready is now mobile reality!!
Yes, change is all around us!! Each individual— including you and me—is influenced and affected by all that surrounds us. If we want to live peacefully with the exterior life that constantly changes, we must also nurture our interior life that needs to develop and deepen too. I think to live life well there must be a balance between our exterior and interior lives. In order to live that balance with integrity and befriend change, one must spiritually wrestle with it. Do we take it to prayer and talk to God about it; do we take it to prayer and talk to our trusted friends?
Change is all around us, yes; but we forget that change also creates a chasm between what was and what is. Just because change is a part of life, should it be assumed that everyone has the internal ability to jump the distance of the created chasm while those instrumental in the development of the particular change yell: “get over it”? What if the folks involved in creating change—or as I call it the “upgrading of life’s environment/structures/devices”—would be conscious of building a bridge of transition over the chasm for others (those not part of planning and designed upgrading) to gently walk across. And, instead of yelling across the chasm to “get over it” they could engage in an educational, compassionate walk across the length of the bridge with those less capable of jumping.
Yes, change in our lives is inevitable, but how we approach it is crucial! If we build the bridge of transition together, change will be gift and grace for those who long to live life well.