Change

I've written about time, which we're all given limited quantities of while we're here but another thing that comes to mind when I think of time is change.  Not the kind in our couch cushions but the kind that comes with time.  Change in inevitable.  Throughout our lifetime, we've all experienced some sort of change no matter how insignificant.  Living in Picayune, you may think that nothing changes but it does.  Remember tight rolled jeans or the mullet?  It may take a while for new trends to get down here, but thank you, Sweet Baby Jesus, that fashion changes.  Remember cruising the Boulevard then heading to McDonalds and whomever you wanted to find would be at either of those two places or in route in between?  Remember when it didn't cost 10% of your salary to fill up your car?  Man, those were good times.  And for those with kids, remember when your kids were little and a hug could make it all better and you were the smartest person ever? Now nothing you say is right and you're the biggest idiot on the face of the planet even though you've gone through the tumultuous years of adolescence and lived to tell the tale.  Things change.  It's part of life

Some try to keep change from happening.  Keeping the mullet, getting more on their kids' level to try to relate to them rather than staying in parent mode, hanging out with friends that bring them down rather than motivate and build them up just because you're comfortable with them or staying in a job that's getting you nowhere because you're too scared to make a possibly life altering decision in an economic climate that's, to say the least, one of the worst we've seen since the Great Depression.  It's called being stagnant.  When I think of stagnant I think of water that's hosting an entire colony of mosquitoes that's going to give me either malaria or West Nile and nothing good can come from either one of those things.  Sadly, though, when I look at my life it has remained, for the last several years, quite stagnant.  With my 38th birthday hovering over me this month (April 22, to be exact), I've got to decide what kind of changes I'm going to purposely make in my life.

I'm not about to cut some friends off because, quite honestly, I've got one of the best circle of friends around these parts.  I have thought about taking out the loppers and cutting off some acquaintances at the root so they don't come back but that's a little heartless and being nicer is one of the changes I'd like to make in myself.  That's a change that I'm sure most can agree needs to happen but chances are, I'm going to remain the sassy, outspoken, sometimes-bitchy-sarcastic-smartass that I've been since the age of two.  That's right, I was sarcastic at two-years old.  Where I really need to make a change is in the direction that my life has taken or rather, hasn't taken.  I'm still single with no children and even though a good friend of mine tells me that others probably envy my life due to the amount of freedom I have, I'm gonna have to say that no, no they don't.  I'm going to open myself to new opportunities.  Whether or not that can happen from sitting on my swing thrown on my porch remains to be seen but we'll see what I can do during the day before porch time starts.

So I guess what I'm rambling about today is this...cut the mullet, unroll the bottom of your jeans and make some changes in your life.  If it's living healthier, being more of a parent than a friend to your kids or something as drastic as leaving a sham of a marriage, do what you gotta do to get you where you need to be.  I've always been a bit of a control freak when it comes to controlling a situation but now it's time for me to get control of my life.  I hope that if you've been wanting to make a change for the better that maybe this gave you the push off the cliff into the unknown that you needed and if not, I'll try to keep you informed of what happens to the smartass, meaning me.

Much Love,
Nickie