Being Flexible

 We just returned from a trip to Portland where it rained and rained. February in Oregon is unpredictable; they have something called the February fake-out where the weather behaves like spring, only to cry "Ha! Gotcha!" a week later. The first three days we were there gave us torrential rain and high winds.  The sidewalks flooded and tree branches blew down! Then, the weather turned dry and so much warmer that we could take the youngest grands to the park and pretend spring was just around the corner!

Our whole trip was impacted by weather before it even started. The day before we were to leave, we got an email from American Airlines advising us that winter weather in Dallas, where we were connecting, was expected to impact our flights. One thing I have learned is that, whenever a profit-driven airline offers to change your flight for free, you should take them seriously! We ended up pushing the trip back a day and avoiding the chaos that erupts whenever Texas experiences cold weather.

Now we are home and life is resuming. I am following up with clients, doing
laundry and making a fuss of the cat. Our cat is 17 1/2 years old, with numerous health problems. When we go away, she stays with a dear friend who used to be a nurse. Despite being well cared for, she has been complaining a lot since we came home and seems determined to make us pay for leaving her. I guess we all get less flexible with age!

Flexibility or lack thereof, shows up in everything we do. There's the obvious stiff joints that come with age, but there is also stiffness of mind that can set in. Hard held opinions in the face of new information, for example.  There's a lot of that around these days! Or doing something the way you've always done it when there might be a better way. We get used to doing things the same way; I am as guilty of that as anyone. Don't you hate it when your favorite software comes out with a new, improved version and the screens all look different?  I might curse a little, especially if I have a rush job and no time to learn the new format. Eventually, I sort it out and start to enjoy the added features. After a while, I wonder how I did without them. 

We take our modern conveniences for granted, too. When we were in Portland last week, my son's internet went out. He was just telling us how fast his fiberoptic internet was, when he realized that he couldn't connect. Now, he has a blended family of four children, and he and his wife both work from home.  It took a week to get the internet provider to fix the problem!  While the adults fumed, the children just played board games instead of watching cartoons.

Change is constant and getting faster. How we deal with it depends on how flexible we are prepared to be. Of course, we should have moral principles that guide our behavior, but let's stay open to new ideas and new experiences. I believe our lives will be richer for the effort.