Changes

I've been thinking lately about what changes and what remains the same. My friend Cheryl stopped over yesterday to order dinnerware. She has wanted a set for 10 years, and is finally able to afford it. When I first met Cheryl, she was married to a doctor, living in a big house, and I was recently divorced single mom just eking by. Her husband suffered health problems and they had to move to a smaller house. Then I remarried and moved to a larger house. Then she divorced and became a single mom; we traded places! Now my husband lost his job, we have the big house with the big mortgage payment and are just eking by. Cheryl has remarried another doctor- extremely nice guy- has a big house again, and finally, after all this time, she is getting that dinnerware set we had talked about a decade ago. Her tastes have changed, and so has my work, so the set she is ordering is completely unlike what she would have chosen years ago.

Maybe things happen when we are ready for them to happen. And maybe rolling with a lot of change reveals what is essential, what is important. One thing that I've learned from having a friend who has had way more and sometimes way less affluence that me is that the value of friendship is not measured in dollars.

The flower bowl, above, is an old shape that I've returned to lately. I made these when I first dated my now husband, and I think that maybe I was opening, like the flower shape, to new possibilities. The same may be true now, as I stretch my imagination to include moving or other lifestyle changes when my husband gets another job.

Wouldn't you know that Cheryl loves, loves, loves these bowls! She has embraced so much change in her life, too. And come out wealthier in life's essentials every time. Which aren't the same as a bank account, that I have learned.