My mother passed away in 1988, she was a great lady and I still miss her very much.  We never lived in an expensive house and all our furniture came off a Goodwill truck but she took great pride in her home.   She always loved the Christmas season; one reason was because it gave her an excuse to rearrange the furniture to make room for the tree.  She enjoyed changing things around and the challenge of creating something new out of our old stuff.

        I guess I am my mother’s son.  When I took this photo of the blue heron gliding out over the smooth surface of a lake you would have thought I would have been satisfied.  Not so.  This is actually two photos I combined together.  One is of the heron and the lake; the other is a photo of a winding mountain road.  I removed the forest from the road and then blended it into the waters.  If you ask me why I chose to join these two photos all I can say is that I enjoy changing things around and the challenge of creating something new out of my old stuff.

        For the most part people hate change.  We will go to some extraordinary lengths to avoid leaving our comfort zones.  Some people panic at the thought of change and sometimes change can be scary.  But when you think about it how creepy would it be if nothing ever changed.  We ought to welcome the opportunity for change.  If we try to resist loss and change or to hold on to blessings and joy belonging to a past which must drop away from us, we postpone all the new blessings awaiting us on a higher level and find ourselves left in a barren, bleak winter of sorrow and loneliness.

        Nothing on earth has a harder road to travel than a new idea.  As I come to the close of another year I am thankful for the chance of change, the promise of change and the hope that change brings into my life.  Let’s be thankful that we can change.  Like my mom once told me, “If you don't like it, change it”.  Join with me and take an inventory of the life we are living.  We have been blessed with a tremendous treasure, the possibility of change.  Happiness is a choice; choose to change what needs changing.

Something to think about:

• If you can’t change circumstances, change the way you respond to them.

• Keep changing. When you’re through changing, you’re through.

• In this life we will encounter hurts and trials that we will not be able to change; we are just going to have to allow them to change us.

• Change is the handmaiden nature requires to do her miracles with.

• I’ve never met a person, I don’t care what his condition, in whom I could not see possibilities. I don’t care how much a man may consider himself a failure, I believe in him, for he can change the thing that is wrong in his life any time he is ready and prepared to do it. Whenever he develops the desire, he can take away from his life the thing that is defeating it. The capacity for reformation and change lies within.

• He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

• Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

• God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.

Thankful for the blessings of change
Rickey Moore