It's November. I can't believe that 2014 is quickly drawing to a close. It is a year that has brought great sorrow and great joy to our family. It seems like subtlety has not been the hallmark of change lately. It has come in huge gut-wrenching blows--the loss of Mom. And it has come in beautiful heart-lifting miracles--the birth of our little Sofia to son and daughter-in-law Dave and Andrea.
This is also the first full year that I have been without a job outside of my home in many years. Because of that, I've been doing a lot of online research, reading articles, taking quizzes etc. that are supposed to help me answer the question, "What's next?" Words like reimagine, reinvent and revamp are often used but it all comes down to that one simple word--change.
This is not a new phenomenon. Mom knew that. Her life, like all of our lives, was a series of changes. I doubt that she did much sitting around reading about how to cope with those events that altered her path. She didn't have the time or the sometimes self-indulgent tendencies of which I often find myself guilty.
In the 1950's, she went from being a young woman with a career to being a farmer's wife to being a mother of two. She was a leader in her church and community, never hiding in the back of the room or trying to look invisible like many of us do when someone is needed to take the reins of a position or a project. She was often an instrument, not an opponent, of change.
I found a recipe of Mom's that I think illustrates her "c'est la vie" attitude toward the transitions and transformations that are needed in order to progress.
Often Mom's recipes are written on spare scraps of notebook paper or the backs of old envelopes. Sometimes they are clippings, quickly removed from a magazine or newspaper and taped inside of one of her many cookbooks. This particular recipe for "Easy Pecan Rolls" is written in her unmistakable handwriting on the back of an "Assignment Card"--a relic from the past of Grace Lutheran Church in Knoxville, Illinois.
Assignment cards, as near as I can tell or remember, were given to those who served on the church council. The council members were to make home visits to those on these cards. It was a way of keeping in touch with individuals and families and seeing if their needs were being met by the church. It also reads a little bit like a report card. Change was inevitable.
I don't know if Mom lead the charge for this change or fought for the status quo in this moment of church history. I can imagine, though, that she was horrified at the thought of all of those now defunct 4x6 pieces of the past going to waste. She believed in change but not in simply throwing away the past.
This is basically what all of those articles and online quizzes have ended up telling me as well. I could have saved time and energy if I had just listened to Mom--paid more attention to all of those women who have come before me. I wonder if they puzzle over the way that we act as if we are the first to deal with life-changing events and challenges. It isn't something new. We may call it reimagining, reinventing or revamping. They simply called it life.
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