Everything that is… is changing. You and I will never step in the same river twice. Marinate on that.

I’ve had experiences and been places that I wish I could return to, and on the other hand, had experiences and been places that you could not pay me to return to.  I have learned to value the past, good and bad.  All people should share this sentiment.
I spent this past weekend volunteering in a kitchen along side men who were willing to share their experiences in life and I found tremendous value in their stories and life experiences.  Some of these gentlemen are in their eighties and I was blown away and inspired by what they offered.  One common thread beneath these stories and life experiences was that change happens and its up to you and I to decide how to handle it (there’s the cliche).

It has been immensely helpful to me to remind myself everyday that change and my natural resistance to it, makes me better or, perhaps put another way, stronger.  It’s ok in my opinion to resist, to question, to doubt, to challenge.  It’s through this (most often) painful process that we grow, grow up, or grow into the next season of our lives.
The ideal kind of change is the change we manifest out of a desire to improve what is within us and around us.  Be it a relationship, a job skill, or fill in the blank as it fits your current life situation.

Ladder back chair in progress

So in this spirit of self manifested change and the desire to expand my own skill set I have spent the last 4 weeks taking on a very difficult chair build. I am currently about to finally assemble the chair but have held off on writing about it, because to be honest I was pretty certain it would end up in the fireplace out of failure in execution or frustration.

In the end, it looks like it will actually come together nicely and it’s a very satisfying feeling to have pursued this challenging project.  I hope these thoughts will inspire initiative for at least one person to pursue a challenge facing them regardless of the perceived difficulty.  The process, NOT the end result, is more than worth it.

I will be sharing details on the chair build in the near future.

Thanks for reading and shalom.