The equation for life change

I was recently working in my yard hard to put an edging back together again.  I know in the scheme of the world this might seem small and trivial.

In fact, I had looked at this edging for a couple of years.  I saw the ways the tree roots had grown and how they had disrupted the edging and pushed up the blocks.

I knew it needed to be fixed but I had avoided taking the steps to address the problem.  And over time, that edging never fixed itself.

This particular day was different, though.  I looked at the edging and decided that it was time to take some action to address the problem.  My choice even required a trip to the hardware store to get the right tool to fix this situation (call that determination to get it done).

I love math so let’s work this out in the form of an equation.  Let’s simply call it the equation for change and it goes like this:  A situation that needs to be addressed + my action to address the issue = CHANGE.

On this particular day, my situation to be addressed was an edging that had been disrupted by roots.  My action to address the issue was getting down to the ground level and putting the edging back together.  The result was that I made a change in the yard and crossed this problem off the list.

Sure, over time, I’m going to have to keep an eye on this problem. The roots will keep growing and the changes for the edging to be disrupted are still there.  But, on this day, victory is mine!

You’ve probably figured out by this point that this a metaphor for life and that I’m probably not really talking about roots and edging.  And, you would be right.  I’m talking about living and recovery and healing.

On that day, I made a choice to address an issue by taking action.  That’s the way it goes for us when we see a situation in life and take the action to improve it.  It might just be a small step, a small action, but the ability to make that change feels a whole lot like being alive.

Do you have one of those situations in your own life?  What if you took some action to address it?

Would you also experience change and, maybe, feel a little more alive?