The Absent Uncle: Coping with Change

One of the things that I have been becoming more and more aware of is change. Change in my physical abilities, change in attitudes, change in preferences in food and drink, and just overall – change.

The ‘change’ is a result of aging, retirement, moving from Kansas to Texas, or seeing friends going through transitions that we talk about and share thoughts. 

In my opinion, all of these changes can be sorted into real or perceived; drastic or subtle with degrees of each in between the extremes. 

For instance, the aging process is really quite subtle, and change is usually only noticed when you realize that physically you cannot perform the same action as you could in years past. That realization may seem drastic, but the change came about slowly, maybe even imperceptibly unless some sort of accident or event caused the change. 

Moving a household, either locally or long distance, also presents numerous changes. That location change can mean new neighbors, a different house and appliances, a new grocery store, dentists, doctors, and finding a new pizza place.  

Retirement can be both drastic and subtle. For some, retirement is a change into possibly new employment (part-time or in line with a hobby) and because of planning, the change is subtle and even a time to look forward to. 

In my work life I consulted with companies and operations that were having problems and needed a bit of help to become more efficient and effective. One of the things I brought into the conversation with the existing staff was to think about change. It was clear that whatever was happening now was not working – what can we change to improve, while what needs to be preserved in order to continue good things. Most ideas were generated by the staff – not me.   

Almost universally though, that conversation about change was not embraced. Change is scary for most of us. Change has to be nurtured, carefully thoughtout, and most importantly carried out to be effective and achieve the results desired. Subtle or drastic; real or perceived – change is something we are constantly going through.   

Guess it is called life.