Changing

 Every morning, my breakfast is two pieces of multigrain toast with butter, a sliced vine ripened tomato with a sprinkle of salt, and a cup of hazelnut coffee with sweetener and milk.  I take my breakfast to the table with my book and my daily vitamins.  No one in the house interrupts me.  I read and eat my toast.  Then I take my vitamins with my coffee.  Then I eat the tomato while I read some more.  Then I sit and finish my coffee, while reading.  The whole breakfast time takes about 30 minutes.  If it's warm and sunny, I move the whole thing to my balcony.

Why does this matter?  Because I want you to understand that I HATE CHANGE!  I hate it.  I want things to stay the way they are right now.  I want to have my breakfast each day. I want to sit and go through my email and my bills each day.  I want to do some work around the house and/or the yard each day.  I want to spend time with my husband, see my mom, talk to my daughter, play with my dog each day.  I want to put on my t-shirt each night, lower the temperature on my thermostat for the bedroom, crawl into bed, turn on the tv, and fall asleep to a movie I've seen a hundred times.

My daughter, Ali, is the same way.  She stayed with a piano teacher for at least a year past what the teacher said she could do with her. She didn't want a new teacher.  She wanted Miss Barbara. Period.  

And, yet, change keeps happening.  When I taught, I moved grades all the time.  Fourth, then fifth, then second, then third, then fourth, then fifth, then fourth, then fifth, then out of the classroom into the gifted program.  I switched schools three times, states two times, principals six times, co-teachers three times, aides and assistants...I can't even remember.  And almost all of those changes were my doing.

Ali, too, makes changes.  She has traveled alone to Costa Rica, Belize, and Israel. She changed colleges five times, moved three times and changed jobs more times than I can count. All while telling me how anxious the changes are making her.  But she does it.

What I've come to realize is this:  I need routine.  I need sameness about me.  But I also need things to change in my world.  I think it's so I can handle it when change is thrust upon me.

We are in a world right now where change is coming every day.  Our way of life is so different that it may never go back to the way it was.  And I'm not really sure it should.  Some of my favorite restaurants and stores are closed and may close for good.  Some of my favorite tv shows are not running anymore and may not come back.  Traveling is dangerous, going to movies is dangerous, bowling, playing tennis, working out...no can do.

So how can I come to grips with life changing around me at an alarming rate? How did I make it easy for my students who were like me, when I changed up the routine or told them we weren't following the schedule for the day?  For my students, I kept some things the same.  We still had our morning meeting when our schedule was changing.  We still shook hands each morning, even if we kept our coats on because we were going on a field trip for the day.  We still hugged goodbye each afternoon, even I as was rushing them out the door to catch the bus.  

For me, I have my 30 minutes of breakfast time.  It might be the only thing that stays the same each day but I need that one thing to hold me tight.  Then I can let the change envelop me and still feel secure.  And I can welcome change, knowing that I'll find a new normal, a new schedule, a new sameness...eventually.

How do you handle change?  How is this new world finding you?  I'd love to hear your ideas.  Blog on your own.  And then link your blog in the comments so we can all read each others.  Have fun!