Author: Wendy

I have never been a huge fan of change. I suppose lots of Southerners feel the same. We often take the, “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke attitude.” Sometimes it’s a good one. In my humble opinion, things like children saying “yes sir and yes ma’am,”and saying Grace at meals should never change.

Other things like technology, are bound to change whether I like it or not. My sweet husband bought me a new laptop for our anniversary. I told him that he should get a new laptop and let me keep mine, but he insisted that he wanted me to have the new one. I was so excited and fairly glowed, I’m sure, with his thoughtful gift.

A mere twenty-four hours later, I’m ready to kill him for his thoughtfulness. At this writing, I hate Windows 8. It’s busy. Icons pop up all over the place for no apparent reason. I have to sign into my computer every time I turn it on. (I guess Microsoft is concerned that my dog may read my unprotected blog.) My printer won’t work and I don’t have Windows Office pre-loaded. Thank you so much Mr. Gates.

My old laptop was three years old; ancient in our world of throw-away technology, but it was running my old friend Vista with no trouble at all.

I’ll bet you that in a month, I will love my new computer as well as its operating system and I simply won’t be able to believe that I could have lived without it. But, today I am frustrated!

Don’t we find most life changes frustrating and intimidating? Whether we are trying to eat healthier, give up smoking, start a new job, retire from a current job, have a baby, get married or (you fill in the blank here). Change is rarely easy, but it’s one of the few guarantees we have in life. Nothing ever stays exactly the same.

But, when you think about it, that really is a good thing. Our goal throughout our entire lives should be growth. If we are growing, we can’t be stagnant. We are perpetually in progress like the Camellia buds in my picture. Even in winter, when nature appears dormant, there is still internal activity going on.

And so it is with us too. Even when we have a sedentary period, we can still grow. Growth doesn’t always have to include action. It could include contemplation and reflection. Sometimes it requires some rest like the trees in winter, but growth should always continue.

We should strive to be more like Christ and answer our call to serve until we take our last breath. We should strive to grow, knowing that change is inevitable and trusting that God has a plan and that we are equipped with what we need to participate in that plan, whether we know it our not.

Keeping this in mind, I won’t toss my shiny new computer onto the floor. I will take some time to learn to love Windows 8, (picture me saying this through gritted teeth.) And most importantly, I’m going to try to learn to embrace change. Who’s with me? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

If I have learned anything at all from my time here on this planet, it’s to expect the unexpected. My parents have two little Papillons (translate super high strung, pups). When my mom let them outside one evening, they wouldn’t come back inside and kept barking at the pear tree. When Mama finally went to investigate, look what she discovered, an opossum!

There’s nothing rare about these creatures, but she was surprised to find one in the pear tree. She was so surprised that she snapped a picture.

When you think about it, life is often like that. Things happen to us all of the time that we aren’t expecting. The big question we have to ask ourselves is how we deal with them. That depends largely on how we look at life.

If we try to control everything around us by constantly planning every moment and holding on tightly with a white knuckled grip, we are likely to be very stressed most of the time. From the amount of anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications floating around out there, I suspect that a large portion of our population survives in that way.

At some point though, we have to ask ourselves, are we content to just survive or is there something more? Is the holding on tightly and worrying about everything good enough?

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite philosophers, Mr. Jimmy Buffet, has the line, “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from all this living, is that it wouldn’t change a thing if I let go.” Wise words to be sure.

I think one of the most difficult things to do as humans is to admit we are not in control and it’s probably even harder in the Western World. We get to control so much here, where we go to school, where we live, what career we want, who our spouses are, who our leaders are. We are big on choice and that’s a good thing, but it also gives us a false sense of our place in the universe.

All of the choices we have are a blessing, but they are also a weight we carry. It becomes very difficult to focus on the God who made us and who we are supposed to serve as we make so many choices to control everything around us. We don’t like surprises and walking with God is a path full of them.

When we depend on Him and not ourselves, things rarely turn out like we think they will or just like we planned. They turn out better because we are fulfilling His plan for us. The peace that we so desire that we can’t get from the pharmaceutical industry comes from letting go and letting God. It comes from placing all of our worries and our need to control at the foot of the cross. It comes from knowing that He has a plan and that it’s good and that we are loved unconditionally.

If we truly believe all of that, what more can we possibly need? What do you think about our obsessive need to control? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

As I write this, it’s another gloomy, cloudy day here in Georgia. I purposely put my desk by a window because the sun energizes me to write, but it’s been a long, dark and dreary winter here. We have been hit with two Polar Vortexes. Who had even heard that term before this year?

We were recently hit by a snow and ice event and the rain has been almost constant since, honestly, I can’t remember when we haven’t had at least one day of rain per week. I did have a little chuckle this morning as I heard a New York forecaster explaining the fact that the snow they were getting would soon mix with sleet and they would have something very dangerous called black ice.

Hmmmm, our Northern neighbors can’t drive on black ice either? Who would have thought? It’s been a rough winter all the way around for the majority of our country. Thankfully,  Georgia’s little groundhog, Beau, did not see his shadow on Sunday and so, he predicts an early spring. That little fellow is 93% accurate, so we can keep our fingers crossed.

Sometimes we get stuck in a season of life that we feel like will never end, (like this winter). Sometimes a season can be particularly brutal and long, (like this winter). When we experience periods like this, it can be particularly hard to see a bright side.

But, I also think when we have long periods of darkness, we really appreciate the light when it comes. Perseverance and patience are two of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Maybe we can use this season to really sharpen those skills. Truthfully, we really don’t have much choice, so maybe we should embrace this season knowing it will eventually end.

God told Noah in Genesis 8:22 after the flood, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

In other words, the sun will always rise and summer will eventually come.

I do know this, when we are sitting on our porches in the summer and sipping sweet tea, there should be much less mosquitoes to bite us and less fleas to bite our dogs. We might look back in June and decide that the Polar Vortex wasn’t so bad after all.

What do you think? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂