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My son has this little electronic coin bank. You drop change into its lid, and it has a digital display that keeps a running total of how much change has accumulated. He’s had it for a few years, and the bank was nearly full. He was curious as to if the current $47.00 total was accurate, so he unscrewed the lid and dumped all the change onto the floor and asked me if I’d help him fill it up again. I agreed and sat down with him. We each grabbed a handful of change and took turns dropping one coin at a time into the lid. We got into a nice little rhythm and the time quickly passed. At one point I stopped to look down at the electronic display and was shocked — it read $80.00!…and we weren’t even done yet, we still had a pile of coins left on the floor! I turned to my son and said, “Wow, change sure does add up!” This took me down a reflective path that got me thinking more deeply about change…life’s change…and all of life’s coins that are dropped into me. I looked at the tarnished pennies on the floor and thought about all the imperfections I had experienced in my life. I then thought about how even the imperfect coins that were being dropped into the bank, added to the total; some of the coins sure were ugly looking and far from ideal, but they were just as valuable, and contributed just as much as the shiny coins did. I smiled because seeing this made it easier for me to accept the idea that ugly things in my life have a purpose…and that purpose, although often unknown and understood, is a good one — everything is adding to me. Life sure is full of change. With every passing moment it seems my digital display is changing. And I’m sure I’m not alone, I bet yours is constantly changing too. No wonder why we’re all a little nuts?! Lol Change can be hard to process because we’re constantly being presented with new perspectives. I think about being a parent, and how just when I get used to my son being one age, and behaving in a certain way — he grows, matures, changes…and presents me with a slightly different version of himself. I too of course, am changing alongside him. Our relationship with each other, and with everything, is constantly evolving and changing, because it is never quite the same as it is in this moment. And when I think of change, one of my favorite things to think about is a caterpillar, and how its change enables it to grow wings and fly. Another powerful example to me that change is everywhere, and change is working for us. I’d even bet all the coins in my son’s bank, that each of our changes are giving us our own set of wings.
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