Fall In the Moment

My daughter was sad this morning. She is transitioning to a larger violin and everything about it is different. It's bigger than her 1/4 size, so it feels different. It sounds different; it's louder and hurts her ears. And, where she has to place her fingers is different (especially when she forgets to spread her fingers to accommodate for the differences).

Her frustration mounted in a swell of tears and a pronouncement, "I want things to be the way they were. I want my old friends, my old violin, my old teacher..." Holding her like the little girl she wanted to be again, I sympathized with her as best I could.

Change IS hard. It often means leaving behind things of great importance - sometimes by choice, sometimes by life itself. We talked about those things...and then I asked her, "What, of the things you like about now, would you have to give up in order to be little again?" As she began to answer this question, she began to realize that the present had some good things to offer too!

And, in our time together, I realized, that on this, the first day of fall, the lesson for both of us was to "fall in the moment" - celebrating and honoring, with gratitude, what WAS and living fully and appreciatively in what IS.