Do you have any change?

 

I think of the question I am occasionally asked, “Do you have change?”  Where I sit right now, I would respond with a resounding, “YES!”  I sit here thinking of this word…change.  It is the word to sum up what is happening all around me.  For 26 years, my home has either been continuously or periodically occupied by children.  It was 26 years ago next week that the dear doctor started telling me the sweet thing growing inside of me was big enough and ready to come greet me…at any time now.  Granted, the next six weeks crept by as I waited for her to make her entrance.  Now, everything about my previous occupation, which has dwindled to just summers and holidays, is changing.

The routine of moving the items, which it seems I just moved to college, is upon me.  I have delivered boxes and bins for the packing to commence.  I’m prepared to receive all the furniture and items which do not have a home in my house.  Yet, the occupation that follows the arrival of the stuff will be absent.  This summer, the kids have other plans.  New adventures are before them.  This change was foreseeable, if I had been looking.  But, I really thought I might get one more summer with them.

One embracing adventure and change is my oldest.  That one, slow to make her appearance 26 years ago, has decided she needs a new frontier to conquer.  It started with a conversation about possibilities, followed by opening her mind to dreams.  Now there are plans which include moving boxes, new addresses, and many miles between us.  This is such an exciting time with all the dreamed opportunities ahead.  Yet, it is another change occurring in my world.

The others are off to seek adventure as well.  The youngest should be longing to come home for the summer.  However, he is off to boot camp to train for the reserves.  Another is spending eight weeks traveling for a school trip and volunteer internship overseas.  The fourth is traveling with some short stints at home.  The two travelers have earned a well deserved break after graduating from college.  This reward will be followed by new jobs and new apartments when they return.  This is only a glimpse of what my life has been for the past 2 years…full of change.

I know the original question is really inquiring about those coins jingling in your pocket or weighing down your purse.  I don’t mind that particular form of change, as I have discovered it can really add up.  This other change seems to be adding up, also, and I wonder if one meaning can help me embrace the other.  I see change (the coins) as the leftover parts when the whole (dollar) is traded in for something desired.  I guess that is what I did.  I traded my whole children in for adults.  These children were pretty great.  I enjoyed them to the fullest.  However, I desired for them to become adults…capable, responsible, loving, adventurous adults.  For this to happen, I had to trade them in and I got “change” in return.  These leftover parts of my life, not my kids, seem a little empty and I am not sure what they are worth.

As with coins, over time change adds up.  It provides you with opportunities you didn’t have before.  You may not have had anything particular in mind when you started putting the coins in a jar, but joy still came when you cashed it out.  I am collecting change at a rapid rate these days.  I know joy is ahead.  The time to trade it in will come and I am looking forward to that day!

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens.  Ecclesiastes 3:1