Rolling With Changes in 2023

The first week of 2023 has had more important news and changes than our brains can handle: the death of Barbara Walters and the Pope Emeritus, the arrest of the Idaho killer. But by far the event that caught the attention of everyone everywhere was the accident on the football field when Damar Hamlin almost died after a tackle. The game which started like any other stopped, and his condition  was on breaking news for days until we could breathe a sigh that it looked like he was recovering. An important game was not nearly as important as this young man, so when it was cancelled, we didn't fuss or fume but agreed that the game couldn't go on.

Changes can come when we least expect them. Our neighbors when I was growing up were Wimpy and Edna, the sweetest couple you could ever meet. He owned a hamburger place and was known by everyone in town.They were childless in a time when IVF and other chances were non-existent.  After some years they decided to try and adopt, and we all pulled for them to be able to get a child. They went through a maternity home that matched them by ethnic background, eye color, temperament, height, everything that could be thrown in the mix. And they got Dennis, and we all spoiled him and were so happy for their little boy. When he was about 3, a local doctor came to them: a young girl from out of town had appeared in his office and was distraught because she was pregnant and could not keep the child. He knew nothing about the father or even much about the girl, but she would have this child in about 6 months. Would they consider taking the baby? Wimpy and Edna agreed quickly, not caring that this time there was no step-by-step match.  As they planned for the baby and weeks passed, one day an attractive young girl came to their door and asked to speak to them. Her story: her best friend was pregnant, attended SMU, was from a wealthy family back East who would not accept this baby, and she could not think of the child being put into a foster home. Edna was so kind to her and said she was sorry for the girl's friend, but they had already made plans to adopt another child in about three months, so it would be impossible. The girl left, but she came back the next day with this addition: there was no best friend. It was the girl herself who was pregnant, and she wanted Edna and Wimpy to have her baby. Imagine the shock in this little living room. But Edna and Wimpy took only a short time to answer the girl: we will take your baby. Do you need any money for medical care? The girl said no; she only needed their assurance they would take her child. She would call them when she had delivered the baby. So the impossible story went on, and in three months a second little boy came to their home, and they were thrilled to have two sons. Three months after that the call came, and they drove 40 miles away to pick up another baby, a third son. The mother told them she would never contact them or any way disturb her child's life because she knew he was safe. How did she ever find Wimpy and Edna out of all the couples in the world? How would any parents agree to have new babies three months apart? But it happened, and their lives were nothing like they had ever expected.

When the first German settlers came to the Hill Country in 1845, they found their clothes were too heavy because the temperatures were much milder than in their home country. They found they could buy land and plant whatever they wanted, and the government would not get a percentage of their crop. They found that at their deaths they could leave their farms to their children, and the government would not be able to tell them that couldn't be done. They found they could bury their loved ones in family grave sites and not have to bury them in big municipal cemeteries with stones fitting the exact size that the government said they had to be.

So life is never at the same pace and the same place even when we think it will be that way.  And that is really a good thing.

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