Change the sheets – PLEASE!
Change. It’s what everyone thinks about as a new year approaches.
“I’m going to change my diet. I’m going to change my job. I’m going to change the sheets on the bed.”
Ewww. I hope you change your sheets more than once a year.
New Year – new you?
A friend of mine says that she wants to make some big changes in the next year. She wants to meet new people and maybe get a job in a fresh field.
‘Fresh field’ as in a profession distinctly different from her current job of teaching online. Not ‘fresh field’ as in plowing or farming. We’re not talking Green Acres here.
As long as she doesn’t head out to assume a new life in the Himalayas as a Sherpa, I’m excited about her resolve. Granted, becoming a Sherpa would definitely be a change, but I would miss her, since hiring on as a mountain guide isn’t in MY plans for next year.
Change as a rule, not an exception
I admit that I’m prejudiced about change. I think it’s a good thing. Growing up as an Army brat, I experienced change on a regular basis as my family moved for my father’s posting assignments around the United States and Europe. When someone talks about the castles in Germany, or Vatican City, I recall my own adventures in those places. The changes I enjoyed as a child helped shape me into the person I am today.
For better or worse.
On second thought, let’s not go there…
Just this morning, though, I was reminded of how much my life has changed in the last three years since we left Minnesota to retire in Texas. The thermometer read 49 degrees when I took Gracie for her morning walk, instead of a brisk 20 degrees that used to greet us on a mid-December morning. I swim in our neighborhood outdoor pool from late March to early October; in Minnesota, I braved the lake from June to early September. Every night, I pick fresh spinach and lettuce from our raised beds for dinner. And yes, I’ve even learned to line dance to “God Bless Texas.” (No, I’m not in this video…but I could be!)
But here’s the real proof of the change in my life-pudding: I gave my neighbor a sun-bleached deer skull this morning.
Not something I ever would have done in Minnesota.
New place, new eyes
Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t know that I knew anyone in Minnesota who would know what to do with a bleached deer skull, let alone be excited to get one.
My neighbor, though, was really excited about it, because she makes beautiful art out of natural objects. Living in the rural Hill Country, we’re surrounded by natural objects, like rocks (lots of rocks), cedars, berries, nut trees, limestone (lots of limestone), and wildflowers. Since we also share our neighborhood with a gazillion deer, coyotes, armadillos and vultures, animal skeletons show up now and then. Knowing that my neighbor can turn them into art is cool; if I can give her something to work with, that’s cool, too.
Never thought I’d consider a skull as a gift.
My, my, how things can…and do…change.
The post Change the sheets – PLEASE! appeared first on Jan Dunlap.
