One thing we can always count on, besides death and taxes, is change. Change is a constant (how’s that for an oxymoron?) in all of our lives; and in most of our minds, most of the time, “change” is negative. But, I learned years ago that that is not always true. Sometimes “change” is just different, and sometimes “change” is good. It really depends on our attitude.

2018, like the two-thousand-seventeen years before it, was a year of change. Let me digress…

I’m not a great “thinker”. In fact the idea of thinking didn’t really occur to me until I was almost 25. I had two of our three children by then and decided it was probably time. I’m not always very good at it, and sometimes I still forget to do it, but I do try. That being said, I have been reflecting, nay, thinking about this past year and all that it has held…

We experienced a few changes this year. I like to think of them as “new beginnings”. We started the year with a family vacation to Hilton Head, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. Beautiful places we’ve never been before.

In April there were two new beginnings. I attended my first, but not my last, Erma Bombeck Writer’s Conference! Amazing as that was, it was quickly overshadowed by our second new beginning in April, our new grandson, Lincoln Wolverine Resimont. Yes, that really is his middle name.

June brought another vacation (we don’t usually have this many) to Yellowstone with our son and his family. We experienced all the wonder that is Yellowstone and, on the way there, we discovered “glamping” as we spent one night in an actual covered wagon.

September brought the most difficult new beginning and change for us. A new beginning of navigating our lives on this earth without our dear friend, Craig. Though we know we will see him again, he is truly missed by all who knew him and especially by those that loved him. Seeing his family each week at church and the courage the Lord has given them and the attitude of their hearts, helps us all to cope, strange as that my sound. They are an exceptional family learning to accept their new normal with abundant grace.

In August of 2018, I started my new school year as a teacher and, for the first time in a long time, I had a new room. “A Room Without a View”. A room that, for me, was a “new beginning,” a change that I had a hard time with and here is my point in all of this.

Throughout my life I have often found that once my attitude changes and I learn whatever it is the Lord is trying to teach me, then and only then, it all works out, not always the way I expect but, it all works out nonetheless.

Flashback to one Monday morning this past November…I woke up early with a decision that I needed to accept the fact that my new windowless room was mine and probably would be for the remainder of my career as a teacher, because there really was no place else for me to go. (Mind you, I had been in this room since August. I never said I accept change quickly.) I decided I needed to be grateful for the room I had been given and for the opportunity to teach, which I truly love. I was finally content and began to formulate different ways to make my little room work. I talked about it with my daughter while we had coffee that morning. I told her that for better or worse, Room 207 was my room and I was okay with it.

A few hours later that same day, I received a phone call from our very patient, grace-giving school Administrator, Angie. Her words, “Roxanne, I need to move you to Room 105. It’s a bigger room and it has a window.” Wait. What? I would insert a stunned emoji here if I could. Can I tell you I was almost disappointed? Almost.

Attitude, it really is everything and it really is a very big deal…

I wish you all, a Very Happy, Healthy and Blessed New Year!