"On the Transition of Change"

transition: n. The process of change from one form, state, style or place to another.

A change is taking place in the direction of my life; my life is in transition. As subtle, as imperceptible as the first flutter of life within the womb, I cannot deny what I sense and feel. Undefinable, I cannot express in words what "it" is, though, or where I am heading. The outcome, the end result is an unknown.

The holiday season has come and gone, another new year has begun. This off-season in my gardening business has been a welcome respite, my work load gradually, yet obviously diminished. With a 74^th birthday one week away and approaching a 17^th season in the gardening work, the question under consideration is “How much longer am I going to keep doing this?”  

Reluctant to leave my clients and those relationships, I’ve held on tight. While the income is a nice perk, I am burned out. Work done half-heartedly is worse than work not being done at all. And I am guilty of that. One client has hired a guy to do the “heavy work,” picking up my slack; another had a conversation with me regarding a tentative time of retirement.

The first volume of blog posts compiled under a single cover is at a publishing company. While there is no date set for release of Tidbits and Pearls, it will happen sooner rather than later. An additional stack of posts sits on the table beside me awaiting initial editing and rewriting--volume two, Sermons from a Soapbox.    

The messages of both books are important-- the first sharing God’s desire for a relationship with His creation, the second speaking of God's unwavering precepts that we must live by in order to live with Him.

Priorities are established, and the delivery of these messages is the highest of those.The writing process is time-consuming. My gut feeling is that the gardening business is going to be taking a back seat.

When I established The Traveling Gardener, I never expected to be able to support myself. God has been faithful in His provision of work and health to perform that work. He has never failed me nor let me down, and yet I am apprehensive to leave the work and the income behind.

A basic precept of God is “If you don’t make a decision, the decision is made for you.” My suspicion is that is where I am. God does not change in order to live with me; change must take place within me in order to live with Him.

Transitions are never easy--what was has been left behind; what is to be is out of reach. They take place as we age; as we recuperate from an injury or surgery; upon beginning a new job; after the loss of a friend, parent, partner, or pet. They are an unavoidable, necessary part, an important part of this process called "life." 

As I glance at the stack of printed blog posts, I am reminded of a recent comment made by a friend, “And so it begins.”

And so it begins.