The Vista

The distant view of the western horizon is obscured by the steady downpour of rain on this warming spring day. Remnants of wind torn siding ripped from the eaves of the farmhouse lay in collected piles awaiting repair and restoration where usable. This season has been inundated with teases of summer, haunts of winter and remnants of floods. One consistency that we are learning to count on is change! Change from welcomed and expected climes to those wished behind us and back again has become the cycle consistently expressed. Deep within the brain of those of us who have been called upon to host the ever depleting levels of dopamine that has been labeled as Parkinson’s disease, a phenomenon similar to the current weather pattern has emerged. It too is called change. That change may occur rapidly and with unexpected consequences or it may emerge slowly in medically predictable fashions. In either instance, it embraces what has become familiar; sometimes friendly, sometimes a foe, but always change. Although friendship with an apparent foe seems an unlikely occurrence, friendship has become a reasonably logical step along the pathway to a place of peace. The friendship is not with the consequences of change per se, but rather with the very fact that change is an inevitable part of the process of life. Thankfulness for another step along the pathway to the “peace” that goes beyond routine understanding leads one to the gate of gratitude that when entered renders a whole new vista.