How Quickly Things Change by Milou Koenings

Sometimes, like the proverbial Chinese bamboo tree that flowers only once every few decades, things change slowly. 

Other times, life changes in the space of a few minutes.   

There was the moment before you knew you were in love and the moment right after - and in that space in time, the world was altered. 

 

The night before your oldest child leaves home, and the morning after, when you wave her goodbye. (That milestone hasn't arrived yet, but I see it, feel it looming on the horizon.)

Each year, when the winds come at the tail end of winter, howling through, unsettling my afternoon walks, disturbing my sleep, I know change is coming.  Change can come any moment, of course, but when the wind comes, I feel it churning away the old, bringing who knows what in its wake.  

I hate it.  

I'm tense into my bones, into my very soul.  The wind roils around us and it takes all my focus to appear calm on the outside, while inside me, my fears and dreams roil with it.

Afterward, once stillness has descended once more, I look around and see the new that has come, and it takes me a few days, sometimes a few weeks to stop marveling at how quickly things turned around, and start to adjust to a new phase of the year.

Here's what my front doorstep looked a week ago today:

Here's what's blooming in my back yard now:

Honestly, how did we go from that to that in seven days?

Here's my favorite, but I'll have to wait a few more months for the passion fruit to bloom.

And a few more months for the pears that will grow from the white flowers pictures above. 

I'm not much of a gardener. I don’t know the names of all the flowers, don't order seeds or weed. But I do love the plants around us. Not just their enchanting beauty, but the constant reminder that life can be gloriously beautiful, and yet change overnight.

There may be some growing pains, some uncomfortable adjusting to do, but often those changes are making way for phases of life that may be equally wonderful.

It's a good thing nature surrounds me with constant reminders. 

Milou Koenings writes romance because, like chocolate, stories with a happy ending bring more joy into the world and so make it a better place.

Her novel, Reclaiming Home, A Green Pines Romance, is available at Amazon.

You can find her on her website, www.miloukoenings.com, on Facebook, Goodreads or Twitter.