Penny For Your Thoughts
By: Nancy Whitaker
Sometimes, I believe the older we get, the harder it is to accept change. If we stop and think about it, life is full of changes. We come into the world, learn to eat and walk, go to school, attend college, hopefully get a job and settle down. Perhaps you will get married, have three kids, a house with a picket fence and live a perfect life. This is what I call the “American Dream”. However, personally, my life has been filled with changes, some good, others bad.
When I grew up and got married, I learned how to cook, how to drive and experienced the pain and joy of bearing four children. I lived through various hair styles, different dance crazes, jobs I hated and jobs I loved. Of course now that I am growing older (?) I would love to wear those high stiletto heels and a mini skirt like I did when I was young. However, I find I dress now more for comfort than style. These are changes we all experience and love or hate them, there will always be some kind of change going on in our lives.
However, life can throw you curve balls that you can either hit out of the park for a home run or wait around for things to get better. During my lifetime of changes, I dealt with the loss of two husbands. This was something that not only made drastic changes in my life, but really played havoc in my emotional status as well. There have been so many things to learn, things I never really considered. Just navigating around the area is a challenge to me, but in each situation I either learn from it or try it over again.
Devastating illnesses, disasters, accidents, and loss of a job can bring many changes to our normal lives.Taking that step out of our comfort zone and dealing with life outside the box is what contributes to who we are today.
Which brings to mind this story: “One time a man was walking along the beach and say another man fishing in the surf with a bait bucket beside him. As he drew closer, he saw that the bait bucket had no lid and had live crabs inside.
“Why don’t you cover your bait bucket so the crabs won’t escape?” he said.
“You don’t understand,” the man replied, “If there is one crab in the bucket it would surely crawl out very quickly. However, when there are many crabs in the bucket, if one tries to crawl up the side, the others grab hold of it and pull it back down so that it will share the same fate as the rest of them.”
So it is with people. It is very difficult in life to deal with the many issues that confront us. Working through changes can be daunting, but there is something inside each and every one of us that knows that we can and will adjust by our inner strength.
Moral of the story: Ignore the crabs. Charge ahead and do what is right for you in the good and bad issues. It may not be easy and you may not succeed as much as you like, but you will NEVER share the same fate as those who never try.
My hope is that 2022 will bring good things for everyone. However, if it doesn’t, try jumping out of the crab bucket. Prove that just by trying to handle the many changes in life will let us know we are survivors.
Have you handled many changes in your life? Are there a lot of things that so-called changes have made it difficult for you to do? Do you ever feel like you are stuck in the “crab bucket?” Let me know and I’ll give you a Penny for Your Thoughts.
