Changing is a part of life. Every moment there is change. Whether we want it or not. One of my favorite songs is Landslide by Stevie Nicks. I remember as a kid hearing that song and remembering how beautiful it sounded. As I get older the song keeps taking a different meaning, but it still sounds as beautiful as the first time I ever heard it. The song represents to me now how throughout life we keep on changing throughout life, that we get older; however, there is always a part of our spirit as a child that lives on.

Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m getting older too

Those words of that song speak to me so closely now, and I am sure they will only speak more to me as I age. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much I’ve changed over the years of my life. Every season of my life that I look back at I see a different version of me that existed. I’m incredibly grateful for all of these versions of myself, because without them I wouldn’t be the person I have become today. I feel like every day I’m growing closer to the person that I want to be. Sometimes when I think back to my past, I can feel a sense of shame, pain, or embarrassment; however, when I think of the person, I am today I wouldn’t trade all of that. All of those hard times made me who I am now, and the person I am becoming. Everything we go through helps shape us.

As I continue to get older, I see that life is many seasons that all go by within a blink of an eye. Each one of these seasons become a piece of us. A piece of what we will become. We are like a tree going through the different seasons, and the leaves are like our memories. The leaves may fall away from the tree, but they are always part of us. Just like our past is no longer present; however, it was a part of a certain point in our life and is a part of us that we will take with us to continue to grow into who we are, and who we are becoming.

I guess the point I want to make with this post is that we will all continue to change throughout our lives, but there will always be a part of the past versions of ourselves that live within us. I think it’s a privilege to be able to become a better person for all those younger versions of myself. I don’t know about you, but when I look back on my life, I want to make the child version of myself proud of me. I want her and all those past versions of myself to come with me on this journey and see that all of those hard moments were with it, because those times would lead to something so much greater for us.