MONIQUE SLIEDRECHT: Learning to see the positives that change can bring

Northern Drift by Monique Sliedrecht

There is a marked difference in the weather here in Scotland. Within a week the temperatures have dropped a notch and the winds are picking up again. Tractors have made their mark in the fields, clearing space for new grass to grow. Leaves are already falling off the trees. The swallows are gathering and, in the words of John Keats, are ‘twittering in the skies.’ Very soon, students will be leaving home and 'migrating' to their new universities and future lives. The sea is getting rougher, the waves spilling some of the dead seaweed onto the shore. The light is different and days are gradually getting shorter, the clouds dense in the sky. The stars are brighter on clear nights. The sunsets are dramatic in the lowering light.

Change is coming. A new season approaches. There is a part of me that is raring to go, to move into the mysterious phase of transition, whatever this brings, exciting, disturbing, hopeful. This takes a certain level of letting go and staying very open.

I remember having a conversation with some people about whether or not change was a thing they welcomed or feared. To be honest, I’m pretty resistant to change. But, at times, it energises and inspires me. I will often follow inner promptings (if loud enough) and push myself into new and uncertain situations. The need for change is also a nudge to wake myself up, and to stir creativity. This month I plan to go to Jutland in Denmark for a close friend’s wedding. It will be the second time I leave the UK in over three years. I am filled with a nervous excitement about the trip - and with mixed emotions at all the effort and complications - but as with other foreign travels in the past, I somehow know it will be enlivening and eye-opening.

But change that comes upon us when we least expect it can be hard. What have we got in our ‘bank of resources’ to weather the shifts? Unwelcome change can include sudden bereavement and many kinds of loss, as well as economic and social crisis. How do we prevent our circumstances from dictating too much of who we are and what we are becoming? How do we avoid becoming a victim to sheer chance and the random disruptions that life can bring?

Sometimes, positive transition is necessary. When things lie stagnant and there is no movement forward, it is time to make some decisions, be it place, work or even in friendship. Relationships go through seasons of their own. There are moments when we have to make a tough decision regarding whether or not a friendship brings ‘life’ or enables growth anymore. If not, it may be necessary to end that alliance, and to go through a period of grief after the initial feeling of loss. While difficult, this unhinging can be an important step to freeing oneself up for future possibilities that uplift and enhance, laying out an unexpected pathway to deeper relationships with people who listen to who we are, bring encouragement and life-giving affirmation.

With the altering of the climate and our environment, and in light of the pandemic, we are having to take steps that we would otherwise not have planned or even considered. What important steps can we take, both big and small, if we are to bring a good future to our children on this earth? Is it too late? Sometimes a switch in our thinking, along with a set choice to act, is required to roll with the times and deal with previous wrong turnings and poor decisions.

Change is life.

“What is the difference between a living thing and a dead thing? In the medical world, a clinical definition of death is a body that does not change. Change is life. Stagnation is death. If you don't change, you die. It's that simple. It's that scary.”

― Leonard Sweet

New developments, while frightening sometimes, also wake us up. They keep us in touch of who we are, and what is important.

So here’s to sea changes as well as sea-sonal change from summer to autumn.

• Monique Sliedrecht is an artist, blogger and podcaster based at Freswick – www.moniquesliedrecht.com

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.