Hatch or Go Bad

I've noticed a theme in the lives of many of my friends, colleagues and myself, for that matter: CHANGE. For some, the change is uninvited and unwelcome. For others, it's an unexpected opportunity. Still others are crafting a change of their own design. It can be change relating to career, family, love or location. Regardless of how much control we feel (or don't feel) about the changes occurring in our lives or what part of our lives will be affected, the common thread is that change is scary...terrifying, even. Aristotle said that change in all things is sweet. Perhaps...but we can't experience the sweetness of the change before we taste the sour sting of the process. No change is painless.

Perhaps the most agonizing part of change is the choice involved. Chocolate or vanilla? Stay or go? Go out on the limb or find solid ground? Even when it is a change we did not ask for, we must choose how to proceed in the face of change. Are we able to muster grace when we are fearful and doubting? Can we offer mercy when we are pulled toward revenge? Can we forgive ourselves when we do neither? The truth is, we are often not at our best selves in this metamorphosis.

So, why then, do we change? C.S. Lewis put it pretty starkly, "We cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, descent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." When we accept that we must change, that it must occur around us and in us, we can begin accept the distress of it. Ever see a real bird hatching? Forget the Easter images of cute chicks in perfectly halved shells. It is not a pretty sight. It is messy, slimey business. Accept that you are suppose to feel, at best, uncomfortable. We are fraught, raw-nerved and vulnerable during these periods of change. If we are lucky enough, those who care for us will also ride out the storm of change along with us. We are each becoming who we are meant to be. Have patience.