“Hey mama, would you say that you are easy going?”

I glanced over to see what our 2nd born, Caleb, was up to at the school table while I was whipping up a meal of scrambled eggs (thank you dear chickens!) for dinner.

He was making an acrostic for me with my name

C-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E-

As he made his way to the first “E” he asked about me being “easy going. ” My first thought was “Um, of course I am Caleb.”

But the truth was, he wasn’t so sure about me being easy going and was desperate for an “e” word for me.

The older I get, the more I discover new things about myself. For example, before children I would have considered myself a person who liked change and perhaps “easy going.” I didn’t think twice that summer between my junior and senior year of college to hop on a jet to Alaska to work as a camp counselor at a Christian camp. The deep wilderness awaited me where I needed to look carefully  for bear or caribou as I left my cabin with a camper needing the restroom at mid night  – the bathroom was a nice jaunt down the side of a mountain from our cozy cabin.

Nor did I  blink at the chance to work again as a camp counselor, cook, and cleaner in Ireland the summer before Blake and I married.

But fast forward life 15 years to when we said good bye to our lovely city home for a move to the country. I cried as if I was being asked to give up one of our children.  It was oh so clear that God had hand picked this little farm for us, but the change hurt.

I can remember looking out off our front porch…..

And thinking, “Well, I can just sit here and never have to feel the angst of change again.” And then I realized that even if I sat right here where I sit as I wrote this blog post, the trees will change in a few months into fall…..

And then the leaves will do their thing and drop into the barren days of winter….

Our children are changing with each passing day. No matter how hard I try to keep things the same it isn’t what God has for our fleeting lives.

Many of you know far better than me life ebbs and flow with change.

When Blake’s father was sick it brought out the side of me fighting against change. I wanted and still long to go over and share a meal at their dining room table with him like we used to. Or see him greeting with joy in the church foyer.

May these changes bring me to the only constant thing in my life-

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

* Caleb had to come up with a different character trait for the “E.” There is always next year. 💚