I think someone came into my head and pulled out all my thoughts to write this article for BustedHalo! Caitlin Kennell Kim captures the hard part about the many transitions in youngadult hood, and she has some incredible reminders about how to find God in the transition. I needed to hear this big time as we prepare to move to Texas on July 28th. If I were to write a piece on moving, it would begin the same way as hers….I hate moving!
I hate moving. I have moved seven times since I graduated from college. This August, we are moving again. I am vexed. Terribly vexed.
I know that moving can be an adventure. I know that a change often does me good. But, to be perfectly honest, I am anxious. I didn’t realize just how anxious I was until a few weeks ago when our 4-year-old son (the oldest and the self-appointed spokesman/chieftain of the tribe of little ones that inhabit our house) stomped down the stairs into the living room with his arms folded across his chest and proclaimed with unadulterated sass that he is NOT moving to Ohio. This was followed by an emphatic “Hmmph!” as he threw his head to the side in an Oscar-worthy demonstration of defiant indignation. “Why?” I asked him. He stopped. He thought for a moment. “I’m shy of Ohio, mommy,” he said quietly, his eyes growing impossibly large and shiny as he did his best not cry, “I’ve never been there.” Well said.
When I was in college I used to tell myself that after graduation things would settle down and I would no longer be adrift in a sea of constant change and transition. After college when I was living in the worst apartment in the history of Western Civilization in a neighborhood that had all of the melancholic, gritty appeal of a Bruce Springsteen song (but smelly and dangerous and infinitely less romantic) and skipping meals to pay bills, I was sure that graduate school would be the time of relative peace. (Stop laughing.) During graduate school I was positive that getting married and starting a family naturally would usher in a period of domestic stability and quiet.We are always becoming
I have something to report back to you from the trenches of transition and disquiet that are young adulthood: this is life. There is no plateau of calm and stability on the horizon. It doesn’t exist. Life is change and transition and being uprooted again and again. Period. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.I have something to report back to you from the trenches of transition and disquiet that are young adulthood: this is life. There is no plateau of calm and stability on the horizon. It doesn’t exist. Life is change and transition and being uprooted again and again. Period. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
Becky Eldredge
Becky is an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and writer. She is the author of the Busy Lives and Restless Souls (March 2017, Loyola Press) and The Inner Chapel (April 2020, Loyola Press). She helps others create space to connect faith and everyday life through facilitating retreats and days of reflection, through writing, and through spiritual direction. With nearly twenty years of ministry experience within the Catholic Church, Becky seeks to help others discover God at work in the every day moments of people’s lives by utilizing St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the many gifts that our Catholic faith and Ignatian Spirituality provide.
It is a blessing to come to terms with the idea of life being constant change and transition. You are lucky to have the insight to grapple with this as a young adult. All through the life span the only constant is change. Oh and one other constant – God is in all things!! Good luck with your move and take comfort in the fact that God is moving with you!!
Transition can be hard! I thought this Bustedhalo post captured the beauty of finding God within the reality of transition.
You are right, too, that change is a constant thing in life and thankfully, God is constant also!