Change is the Only Constant in Life

I like sameness. And routine. But of course life doesn’t let you continue on in your same path indefinitely. In this life, we encounter changes in age, marital status, and parenting. We change homes, cities, and jobs. We even change friends and churches, on occasion. All these seems to prove the truth stated by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus:

My husband and I are currently in the midst of some big changes in our life. We shouldn’t have been surprised, but we were. At least by the agent of the change. We knew it would come, but we thought it would be a smoother transition, and one of our own making. Instead, our life was thrown into chaos in an instant.

But as I was trying to calm the panic inside me last week, I found myself grateful for the fact that my God never changes even when so much in my life does.

Four and a half years ago, we embarked on a season of constant and crazy change. As I started to make a list, I realized it was even more than I’d imagined! In less than five years:

Our location/living situation changed.

We moved to a new city (with all that entails—new doctors, new post office, new directions to learn, new church, new friends, etc, etc.).

We moved downtown instead of to a suburb.

We moved from a 2700 sq ft house to a 1300 sq ft apartment to a 750 sq ft condo in a high-rise, which required not only a reduction in stuff but also meant we had no room for visitors.

We went from 2 cars to 1, relying on Uber when our schedules collided.

We walked more than we drove.

Our professional situations changed.

I no longer had a traditional publishing contract and instead learned indie publishing through 2 novellas.

My husband took a job with much greater responsibility in overseeing work, employees, and a very large budget. He also had situations requiring his attention that would pop up at any given moment outside of work hours.

My husband travelled often for work and I often accompanied him.

Our family situation changed.

Our youngest child graduated from college.

Our boys got married within 11 months of each other, giving us 2 new daughters.

Our first grand baby was born!

Our daughter got her Masters, then her Ph.D., and moved from Philadelphia to Texas to Boston.

All that is a ton of change in itself, but then we added the biggest change of all: the COVID pandemic.

Truthfully, we’d finally settled into all that change. We were enjoying our “empty nest adventure” as we’d deemed it. But as the pandemic elongated, we suddenly found ourselves longing for a little more living space, to be closer to family–including our kids and granddaughter–and a less stressful job for my husband.

And then the old job was done in the space of a heartbeat, and the new one (which was the original old one!) slid right into place. Once again, we are caught in the whirlwind of change.

God was clearly with us in the all the change in our lives of these past 4 1/2 years, and I know He is with us in this new season of change. When the chaos dies down, I’ll let you know where we’ve landed, but for now I’m holding on to two truths—Heraclitus’s statement that change is the only constant in life, and the truth that God’s love and care for us will never change.

So tell me, do you enjoy change or sameness? What is the biggest change you’ve had to walk through (beside COVID changes!)?

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D'Ann Mateer

Inspired by novelist Eugenia Price, D’Ann’s dream of writing historical fiction with an element of faith began in middle school, though her serious drive toward publication took a bit longer. D’Ann is the author of four historical novels and one novella, as well as a contemporary short stories in a compilation volume. D’Ann and her husband of 30 years can be found in Austin, TX when they aren’t touring historic sites or visiting their grown children.

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