Environmental Change....

I have four sons.
Ranging in age from 12-17.
You do the math.

Ok...if you hate math and you just entered a black hole of inadequacy,
I'll do it for you:
We had four kids in a five year span.

Let's pause for a moment and let that sink in.

I can actually say those figures out loud now and not twitch.

Not much.

My 14 year old just spent 45 required minutes on the exercise bike.
The timer shrieks through the house and he bounces off and starts running from the living room..through the family room, up the stairs, through the kitchen, down the hall to the den and back again, pausing only to declare that he feels like he can run faster now and sets off to prove his analysis.

I know the feeling.
After 45 minutes on the bike, upon standing, my legs feel light.
This is the feeling you get when you've been at sea....from what I hear.
My experience at sea is limited to the ferry trips between Nova Scotia and PEI, before they built the bridge and the trip across the strait between Vancouver and Victoria.

I think I'll write a book.

Yeah well...I know some sailors...
hmmm....
Moving on...

(((grin)))

Coming back to land after months at sea, sailors must regain their "land legs."
Heading out to sea after shore leave they must get their " sea legs" back.

ewwwww...

Kind of sounds like there are vaults of lower extremities stored somewhere convenient in the bowels of the ship.
Would make a good CSI show if you ask me.

Coming out of one environment into another requires a period of adjustment.
The effects of being immersed in a specific environment carries over into a new environment until the body relearns or assumes new knowledge to sustain it.
Case in point: the staggering walk of a person who has been at sea for a long period...or the reverse.

Balance.
Realignment.
Leveling.

Habits acquired in one environment, necessary for survival are not necessarily transferable to another environment.

We all have environments we grew up in, moved out into...married into...divorced out of...applied for...studied in...work in...fell into...and some were inadvertently visited upon us...

Some good.
Some great.
Some not so.
Some beautiful.
Some liberating.
Some ugly.
Some fascinating.
Some captivating.
Some painful
Some deadly.

Planned and unplanned.
Some we have Chosen. Created.

Others were Inflicted.

Some we bask in.
Some we are still ensnared in.
Some we have escaped.

All influencing.
Impacting.

Environments change like seasons.
Pass like storms.
Thaw like winter into spring.

We carry over residue from one to the next.
Like sailors needing to regain their land legs.

I have people in my life who are staggering out of one environment into another.

Staggering.

Me too.

M e T o o...as in also....as well...moi aussi....


It's not all bad.
There are many rooms inside me filled with different pressure systems...different environments.
Music and laughter seep out from under the door of one room, while tears and groans filter down the hall from another.
We are multi faceted human beings...
Joyous and grieving.
Loving and hating.
Complex and simple.


It's ok.

We are under the watchful care of One who is the Master of Inconvenient TRUTH.
He is the highroller in the Environmental LOBBY.
He doesn't recycle:
He RE-MAKES...
RENEWS
and RESTORES...
He RECLAIMS what has always been HIS.

me.
you..
us....
ALL of us...

even them...

you know them...

...the ones staggering around bumping into us and bruising us
...and sometimes even knocking us down.

The ones with their own environmental woes....

them too...

I am never going into environmental law.

But I have decided..If I can hug a tree..save a penguin...a seal or a rare double striped twickerdoodle...

Then when someone in environmental chaos emerges...
...and it may be me staggering onto your horizon someday....
I want to do what I see my Father doing...
and put on an extra layer of grace...
a blanket of compassion...
and a helmet...with high speed connection to my Father's voice...

Just in case the first two get a bit shredded.

Cause I know me.

And sometimes that truth is DAMN inconvenient.