Changes! and Dissapointments, How Do We Deal?

In Capoeira when our feet are taken out from underneath us we fall with a smile knowing we will come up from an unexpected place and use that new position to our advantage. Haha on a good day!! Change is much like that! In social work we call it "re framing" our situation. Change can be good, change can be stressful even PAINFUL change can be the result of a disappointment change can be the result of growth. Change can be as natural or unnatural as we care to see it. I'm not always good with it but nevertheless....Change happens!

I witnessed so much change in my life this year. I saw my father finally released from the hold that alcoholism had on him. I saw him change back to the sweet nature he had before alcohol and war took it's toll on him. This made a bittersweet backdrop,as my family watched him change and die on June 9th one hour after I changed from age 53 to age 54, the day Willow changed from being a High School student to High School graduate. I saw Skyler change this summer from a little boy without his grandfather to a young man living in NYC attending two schools simultaneously. (American Ballet Theater and the Professional Performing Arts School). I saw Willow change from carrying hockey and lacrosse sticks to Sonic trays on rollers skates to carrying a full load at Rutgers University. I watched friends change and disappoint me and I've watched friends refuse to change and disappoint me. Our house could have become an empty nest instead it became a haven for a new household member and a weekend magnet for capoeirstas. It's not only about perspective and how we choose to see things it's about choosing positive change! I'd like to end this blog about Change and Disappointment with three positive quotes that don't even carry these words but say it all! I've had them tacked up beside my computer all year they're great!!!:

1. Greg Anderson--"Stop the mindless wishing that things would be different. Rather than wasting time and emotional and spiritual energy in explaining why we don't have what we want, we can start to pursue others ways to get it."
2. George W. Crane -- "Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act."
3. Nido Qubein "You can't think your way into acting positively, but you can act your way into thinking positively."

And you know me I always have a PS: This I just recently learned from a VERY wise friend of mine. He said "No matter what you are going through, everything has a time line, joy, disappointment, pain, even love but the cool thing with love is that it can just keep stretching and bending and growing and getting better and deeper." So I took from this to say: "my friends whatever we are going through in our different walks remember to love each other through the process" and "Every little thing is gonna be alright!"

And now I promise I will really bring this to a close perhaps because I am getting hungry..but my friend also said this... ya gotta rejoice if it's your time to rejoice! Be happy and know when you have done good works! He said ya know it's like we're all makin' a sandwich and then we gotta' eat it! So if you're puttin' good things into your sandwich m-m-m the times gonna come when you're gonna eat a good sandwich but if you're building your sandwich wrong, oh well you're just gonna hafta eat a nasty sandwich for a while hee hee. Ha ha I'm goin' for lunch!!!