Chapter 34 Part 4: Embracing Change

When I got my first “big girl job” in a bank, one of the employees playful hazed me and told me that it was required to read Who Moved My Cheese. Joke was definitely on them, as I love reading. Now fourteen years later, I still think about that book.

The premise of that book is that change is constant and the best thing that we can do as humans (or mice haha) is to accept constant change. It echos a theme that has permeated most spiritual teachings - impermanence. Everything changing all the time. Never the same sunset, never the same clouds, never the same body… always changing.

Sometimes this is an invigorating, optimistic thought and sometimes bittersweet. This month I have certainly been feeling the bittersweet essence of impermanence. In about one month, I am moving back to Houston, Texas. I am mixed with so many feelings even as I try to articulate.

Bakersfield is where I learned to teach yoga. Bakersfield is where I made some of my best friends. Bakersfield is where I hurt and healed my back. Bakersfield is where I leaned into community. Bakersfield is where I found a version of myself that I really like. So it feels challenging to say goodbye for now, to accept the change, to embrace the impermanence.

And yet -

I am so ridiculously proud of myself. Instead of crumbling under these massive life changes coalescing at once, I feel…steady. Change my body, change my home, change my work and, yet, here I stand. Steady. This is the beauty of doing deep inner work. No matter what unfolds, I feel capable of rising and evolving.

I told someone recently that my life’s mission is to have an incredible, fantastic, wildly epic life filled with lessons, growth, joy, pleasure and play. Then turn around to show others what’s possible for them, too. So when I say I feel like I can stand in the midst of a chaotic, challenging season, I am saying that it’s possible for you, too.

The inner peace and confidence that I feel is available to you, too. As we glide into fall, I invite you to celebrate the changes all around you. Celebrate the leaves and the seasons. Celebrate how you’ve changed. Celebrate the endings and beginnings. Celebrate the changes. Celebrate the sky even as it transforms from vibrant to dark, trusting that eventually the light will shine again.