Continuing on the theme of change in both Maria’s and my latest posts, you may have read that we are moving to Atlanta. Not a move we would have ever anticipated making, as the city never said “Wow” to us, or necessarily felt like it could be a place to call home. It even feels a bit surreal to think that in less than five weeks it will become our new zip code of identification.

New drivers licenses, re-registering to vote, new PO box, change the car insurance over, find a new dentist, print new business cards, find the cool places to network and so on.

What is abundantly clear to us is that change is needed, if for no other reason as to free the energy of our lives, to break from habits and the familiar. In addition to our two youngest ones leaving home to opposite ends of the country, and having put our sweet feline Buttercup down just a week ago, we have made many other changes. We just sold a sizable portion of our furniture in a moving sale, we’ve changed our use of leisure time (less Netflix, more literature and yoga), I’ve stepped off a non-profit board that I’ve been serving on for nearly five years, traded in one of our vehicles for a smaller one and will be selling the other, and I’ve changed the pace of my work days.

Of course we don’t change for change sake, but then again, by making one change in our lives it frees the energy for other changes to come. If I can…change small habits that no longer serve me, then I can make larger changes.

It seems that the familiar had me locked too solidly for too long to where it came to the need to change nearly everything. Fortunately Maria and I aren’t changing the “us” that makes us a duo, and I’ll never change my connection to the indigenous ways and teachings. I’ll never not be the me that continues to yearn for evolution from darkness to light, from unknowing to knowing, and from judgment and fear to acceptance and love. I’ll never not feel as though in order for me to take up space on this Earth that I need to work toward making things at least a little better than before I came.

Which, I now feel, is the whole point of change. Of course we don’t change for change sake, but then again, by making one change in our lives it frees the energy for other changes to come. If I can go Netflix free for three weeks, or change small habits that no longer serve me, then I can make larger changes. I can leave a job that pays a predictable income, but no longer feels right. I can step off a non-profit board knowing and trusting that there are others who will pick up the mantle and wield it in their own way with their own intention and it will be alright.

I can even detach myself from the expectation of what the success of Balanced Is, is supposed to look like, and open myself to the endless possibilities of how it can and will evolve. I know how it has evolved in Asheville North Carolina. I don’t know how it will evolve in Atlanta Georgia, but I’ve purchased my ticket to the ride and I’m strapping myself in for the adventure, trusting that the steel rails of the roller coaster and the mechanisms of the car that clutch steadfastly to those rails will do their job of keeping us on our path. All we have to do is show up, do our work, and trust that the outcome will be what it most needs to be. And by our willingness to embrace change we are freed up to expand the possibilities of how we can do our work in the world, which in our case, is doing our best to make it just a little better than before we got here.

If these words bring up uncomfortable feelings for you, I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Sometimes speaking the words of what we’re uncomfortable about makes us a little less uncomfortable. And then others can hear their own struggles in yours, and we all learn from one another.