changes

I am always surprised and then wonder why I am surprised by unexpected life changes. Our family is facing several right now--mostly around our careers and work challenges and opportunities. For me those challenges take me to my core personal values and I ruminate on the direction of my daily life. My dreams, too, have been overlapping with those questions as the clock ticks on my life calendar.

We are getting our house roof redone and outside painted. We put up new inside shades and curtains two weeks ago to begin to prepare for the summer sun slant and heat. The three young bunnies we met on our pre-Easter walk ten days ago have almost doubled in size. Yesterday, we took a spontaneous walk in Sabino Canyon and I was surprised to see the month-early flower buds on a saguaro opening in the early sunset.

Yet some elements of life are steadying--masterpieces of art, for example. When we were in New York a month ago, we visited the steadfast St. Paul's Chapel. Somehow it was spared in the 9/11 attacks and served as a feeding station for the first responders. The graves in its exterior are marked by weathered tombstones that--over the years and through wind, rain and snow--have bent down toward the ground but still stand. Down the street a few blocks is Trinity Church and inside its walls hangs this lovely Della Robia. Looking at it, I was transported back to Florence, Italy where, in 2006, I saw several on the exterior walls of a plaza structure that used to be an orphanage, patroned by the Medicis.

So, amidst changes in your life--what reminds you of strength, love, endurance, as this image does for me?