Transition - Part 2

Transition is pretty much just a fancy word for change.

Most people don't like change.  Change is hard.  It is unknown and unpredictable.  Even changes that we want and look forward to, like learning to live as a married person, or getting a new job, or having a new baby, can be difficult to navigate. 

I am in a pretty intense season of change, of which our daughter H moving out is only one part.  It is really hard and painful at times, but also really, really good.  The Holy Spirit is showing me, mercifully in bits and pieces, how many bad habits I had developed, particularly when it came to how I related to my children and how I attempted to resolve conflict.  And there just hasn't been a lot of time and mental space to learn to do things differently until now.  The crisis of the week (or day) took most of my time and energy.

So I am very, very grateful that God is so patient with me.  Patient in timing.  Patient in revealing things when I am ready to see them.  And patient with me as I process the information and suss out what He wants me to learn.  He is so very good!  What a good, good Father we have in God.

I am also very grateful for such a patient husband, and such patient and resilient children, who love me in spite of the mistakes I make with them!

Here is some of what I am learning:

~ how secondary trauma has affected the way I view the world

~ how having anger directed at me by one person has affected the way I anticipate interactions with others

~ how those anticipations and assumptions are almost always wrong

~ how forgiveness is the perfect antidote to anger

~ how to put healthy emotional boundaries in place

~ how to better see things from another person's point of view without getting defensive


These are BIG things to learn.  GOOD things!!  But it is a process and I am not finished yet.  (again, thankful for God's patience!)  It is a really wonderful thing to be 55 and still learning new things. :)

Transition is hard.  But it can lead to better than before.  That is what I want.  That is what I am praying and working for.  And by God's grace, that is what is happening in my life.