So, my big sister (and BFF), Anne, recently moved. We’ve lived near one another for 58 years (as long as I’ve been alive). Anne and I have shared a lifetime of events, activities and love. We’ve watched our children grow, exchanged Mother’s Days Out to give one another a break, and took our kids for swim lessons together, not to mention daily swimming at Bangert Pool (it was close, cheap and wore the kids out)! Anne has been my go-to for medical advice (she’s a holistic nurse and very wise), is a great walking-partner and we’ve gone for certification in Reiki and Breathwork together. Anne supported me many years ago when I went through a year-long depression and was there to cheer me on when I crossed the finish-line after doing 75 miles on my bike a few years ago. She’s a great confidant and cheerleader! There’s very little I would not do for my sister, Anne.
It’s a big deal that she’s moved to Wisconsin. For a while I just pretended that it wasn’t going to happen (you can do that when you learn of it so far in advance). Then, as it got closer, it became real! So, I did what I knew needed to be done…I embraced it!
My daughter (and Anne’s goddaughter), Abby, and I took Anne on an overnight to a magical treehouse on 70 acres of land. For 24 hours we hung out, laughed journaled, shared stories and shed tears. Joe and Adrianne (Anne’s son and daughter-in-law who she is moving “home” to in Wisconsin) wrote a beautiful letter of their vision and dream of having Anne (and her husband Jim) grow old near them. I led a loving-kindness meditation and we honored Anne’s past as a young girl, then as a woman, the present of all that is going on now, and then what is to come. What a wonderful celebration of my sister, the lives she’s touched and the love that she is to so many.
So, on to a new Chapter! Anne and I have spent time looking ahead. We journaled all the ways that we can nourish our special bond (facetime, meeting halfway, a book club, and on and on)! We’ve got our first trip on the calendar – I’m traveling to her new home in September!
Change is not easy, although it is inevitable! It happens all the time in so many ways. We can try to resist it, but it comes anyway. Embracing change, celebrating the past, present and what the future will look like, and allowing “all” of the feelings that change stirs within us, is truly the only way to go!
Share a transition in your own life. How did you manage, embrace and celebrate that change?