4/24/2006 - New Kid on the Block

Change is hard, but radical change is even harder. Unlike our children, who get excited about trying and learning new things, we, adults, get nervous over the coming change and are too quick to react negatively, even knowing that change might be needed.

Fate changes our lives so dramatically that all we do is we blame God and people around. We want our lives, marriages, and former jobs back. The future seems scary, but the past looks familiar and comfortable.

My coming to America made me helpless, it took my support system from under my feet: I didn’t drive, I didn’t have money, I didn’t know how to live here so I had to learn to depend on my family and friends. Life taught me to become humble and patient. Life taught me to trust like kids do. It would be so easy to become heavily depressed " this road is well paved, but luckily I discovered that change transformed my inner-self: I felt like a child again. My friends told me that I was acting and looking much younger: “What a paradox!” I thought.

One day I found an explanation for that " I’ve read in one psychological research that immigrants become at least 6-7 years younger physically and mentally simply because they have to learn to live again - simply they have to learn to put their lives in God’s hands. They learn to live with kids’ curiosity that brings new thinking and disposition. Youthfulness and energy comes back naturally because of the every day joy of meeting new people, learning new skills, and learning to love again.

People say that one moving is equal to one earthquake, but what about many changes at once? What about losing your job, getting divorced, and sending your child to college, losing your loved one to cancer all at once?

Change is organic " this is how God created the world. It might be that in this change is the key to our constant search for transformation and longevity. Do not be afraid of change; trust that what you think is your failure might be your opportunity. Believe me it feels great to be a new kid on the block.