Talk About Change

I’m not sure exactly when it happened. But at some point in my life, when I was still a young man, I learned that you either adapt or die (figuratively)!

Maybe it was when I was 16 and my parents moved from Fallbrook to San Francisco, and I decided to stay behind. I could no longer depend on my parents for food, housing, clothes, etc. Talk about change! I had to get a part time job at a gas station, pay for all my own expenses, and still make it to school every single day. I learned a lot about adapting during that phase of my life and most of it through suffering, hunger, and loneliness. I also learned that there are very bad people in this world who will take advantage of you every chance they get, so you better learn to adapt to your surroundings.

Or maybe it was when my business was struggling in San Diego and my first marriage was failing at the same time. I made the difficult decision to move to Orange County and start my life over. Talk about serious change! New business, new place to live, new friends, and more importantly, a new outlook on life focused on my Christian faith and a desire to help out a local charity in south Orange County.

Or maybe it was in March of 2020, when the first world-wide pandemic in over 100 years put a stranglehold on life as we know it. The pandemic changed everything about “normal life”. No more socializing and no more eating inside restaurants. Even going to a grocery store was dangerous. So many things that we enjoyed and took for granted, were no longer possible. Talk about hard changes!

So I'm glad that I learned to adapt to change when I was still fairly young. I believe it’s an extremely important skill set because the only thing constant in this world… is change. And have you noticed that change is happening again? The Covid situation is easing up and people are starting to return to a more “normal life” once again. But the question is… will we go back to taking things for granted?

And that question got me thinking… For nearly three years, I haven’t been able to spend time indoors with my family, go to a movie theater with friends, or enjoy a romantic dinner with my wife at our favorite restaurant. So what is the lesson I learned from the radical change that Covid dumped on our lives? Never take the people you love for granted!

Joe and Debby at their favorite Restaurant pre-Covid

In time of test, family is best.

~ Burmese Proverb