The Vernal Equinox yesterday prompted the northern hemisphere to change from winter to spring. The one constant in life that keeps us moving forward one step at a time is change. Life pushes us forward whether we comply or not. Change is wonderful. Change is terrifying. Change is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage and sometimes it takes sacrifice. Yet it is what makes us alive, that wondrous capacity to grow and evolve. Metamorphosis seems to be the perfect word for what happens when we experience change. In fact it is the word used for many creatures in the natural word who evolve as they pass through the life cycle. Often metamorphosis happens during the spring season so I thought that spring would be the perfect time for me to change up my website and morph my writing into something different and hopefully fresh.

This hasn’t been an easy thing to do. Let’s face it, technology is something my generation needs to painstakingly learn. It’s not a natural thing as it is with our children. I am proud that I pushed through it myself without asking my kids for help. Most likely because they are off living their own wonderful lives and not right here with me hovering over their shoulders as they try to bring my ideas to fruition. Thankfully for we tech challenged folks, there are lots of wonderful templates that helped me along. Maybe I’ve got this after all!

When you think of it this spring has seen lots of change in this amazing country. As fearful as the past year has been it suddenly feels as if those shoots of change, like those of the flowers of the spring bulbs, are breaking ground and reaching for the sun. We the People seem to be finding voices in places unexpected. It is a truth that often change needs a catalyst to happen, some momentous powerful event that has pushed us to the limit. An event like that happened in DC, it happened in Hollywood and it happened in Florida. Change has not come about easily by any means. There is a lot of hate and mistrust and threats and demeaning acts to discredit those trying to make the change happen. There is a lot of fear. How will this affect me and mine? What about my constitutional rights? What about what I want?

It’s ironic that women and children, the two groups often considered to be the weaker and more vulnerable have become the most powerful voices during this new season of change. They have become the catalyst for movements that show no signs of abating. Like that ripple in the water after a stone has been thrown, the movements just keep getting bigger and bigger, empowering thousands who never stood up to speak their pain and fear before. Me, too. Time’s Up. March for Life. Never again.

The timing is right. Out of the mouths of babes who have survived mass shootings in their schools come cries that are enabling change. They have spoken out against powerful adults and corporations, respectfully and forcefully. Huge corporate businesses have changed their business policies in the wake of these voices. States have put new legislation in place, new laws and guidelines. It is staggering how quickly this has happened. Yet I am stunned at the backlash. At the baiting and the downright insulting by those who feel threatened by these children who have experienced what no child should experience. After the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, my own children, in grade school and junior high respectively, practiced active shooter drills in their schools, right along side fire drills and earthquake drills. A new terrifying fact of life. Mommy, we pull the blinds down. We move away from the windows and teacher locks the door. We all kneel down and cover our heads. Brave new world for my brave young children. I would hold them just few minutes longer each day before I sent them off to school. That fear was just not right. Since that horrible day, dozens of kids have been shot in their schools. Too many parents relive those last moments when their children headed out the door never knowing those were the last moments. There must be change. There must be.

It is sometimes easy to forget that we do have some control in a world that often feels out of it. It’s the control we have over ourselves. We each need to decide what these powerful changes are going to morph into after all of the marching is done. It’s all been pretty painful so far and yet I actually feel hope. I feel like we are going to be alright. Like my personal symbol, the lotus flower which needs to push its way through the mud to reach the sun and bloom, this too shall come to full bloom. The spring equinox turns the world from the stasis of winter to the growth of spring. Metamorphosis.

For now I will stay grateful that I can feel hope for the present and the future. That the promise of a metamorphosis is that all things must pass. That I vow to do my part to make change. And yes to rise each morning with my face toward to the sun and bloom. And to keep changing with the world.