08/02/25

My relationship with change is complicated because if I could only embrace change instead of giving in to my stubbornness, which feels like a raging waterfall flowing out of my chest, I would enjoy life much more. I would also save myself a lot of stress, tension headaches, and backaches. I’d probably get my full eight hours of sleep without interruptions if I just embraced change and let us get along instead of fighting it. 

Change is a friend who tells me how it really is instead of sugarcoating things. It’s a friend who gives me a golden bridge to walk back on.

Change makes me wiser every time it asks me to pack a bag and leave, every time it asks me to see something in a new light, and every time it asks me to grow my perspective so I can see things more clearly. 

It leaves me feeling bright, full, and welcoming. 

It satiates my hunger for novelty.

It keeps me curious and guessing about what comes next, wondering how my life can spiral upward again and again. So, thank you, change. I welcome you in, ushering in the new season, with open arms.

Even though my feet feel heavy and are bare, I know all I need is the weight off my back that I’ve carried my whole life—it’s gone now. So, how can I not sing when I see the sun rise and laugh with friends as it sets again in the evening? How can I not count the birds in the sky and log them, thinking only of my bird year instead of the business I haven’t started yet? I have everything I need, and the skill to improvise and adapt whenever life calls for it. 

So, I hop forward, skipping across the golden bridge, grabbing onto autumn leaves with both hands.

I imagine change waiting for me like a sturdy hand in a paper lunch bag that I have to shake when the clock strikes noon. Once I make a deal and shake its hand, its grip doesn’t let me go until it’s swooped me up into autumn, where I am an entirely different version of myself, and the better for it.

May clarity find you in the quiet places,

Nicole Asbjorn