Change, Five Minute Friday scribblings, Life

New: New Pages In Our Lives

Jeanne Takenaka

Mountain fall leaves

By +Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka

My Five Minute Friday prompt this week is—New. This largely unedited “rough draft” form of writing stretches this perfectionist, in the best of ways. I write for five minutes on a given topic. If you’re interested in learning more about 5-Minute Fridays, check out our hostess, Kate Motaung’s site. Or, click on the link at the bottom of this post. As you read my simpler Friday posts, I hope you’ll join in the conversation!

NEW

I set out to open a document to write an FMF post and the button I pushed? “New.”

This got me thinking. Sometimes a new chapter in my life begins as a blank page. I get to fill it with words, actions, memories, smiles. It becomes written on, even wrinkled.

Sometimes, New pages interrupt my life, changing what I think is already a good thing. I don’t ask for the New, it just presents itself in my days.

Like when appendicitis came knocking Easter weekend.

When infertility barged its way into my husband’s and my careful plan for our family.

When we think things are one way with our family . . . only to find out there’s a new diagnosis to grapple with.

Sometimes I love New because I hold the pen that writes my impressions, hopes and dreams on it’s empty surface.

First glimpses of fall

Other times I need to accept New—the New Normal. The thing I get to do?

Control how I respond to the New that enters my life unexpectedly.

New isn’t bad. It’s different. Whether I choose the New document—for my day, for my season in life—or whether it’s given to me by the God whose mercies are new every morning, I have the choice of how I respond.

Is it with acceptance?

Or with resistance?

Or resignation?

I’ve done it each of these ways.

Fall colors on the mountains copy

And God is faithful to meet me in each. Though, when New enters my life in ways I’m not fond of, and I accept it with His grace guiding me? It’s incorporation into the pattern of my life becomes a little less New and a little more comfortable to live with.

What about you? What New page has opened giving you the chance to write on it? How have you worked through the New pages that turned when you weren’t ready for them?

Vist Kate Motaung’s Five Minute Friday site—New

Published by Jeanne Takenaka

Award winning aspiring novelist, Jeanne Takenaka, writes contemporary inspirational fiction that tackles real life issues with a heart to draw women closer to God and those around them. She lives near the mountains in Colorado with her amazing husband and two exuberant boy-men. She loves being God’s girl—always learning about His grace, hanging out with friends and enjoying a great cup of coffee. When she’s not writing you can find her with a camera in her hand, looking for #alittlebitofpretty in her days.

12 thoughts on “New: New Pages In Our Lives”

  3. I’m beginning to dread the new. So much of it has brought things to be endured that each new page seems like it’s just going to be worse than the last.

    I know, or at ;least I hope that there is a sunrise at the end of this, that there will be a New that is bright and positive, and that it will rise phoenix-like from the ash.

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    1. I thought about you when I wrote this post, Andrew. My “difficult” news aren’t all that severe in the big scheme of things. It’s hard when each New opens up another difficult chapter.

      Here’s to sunrises that are bright and positive, my friend. Praying.

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  4. I currently have a new chapter beginning in my life. I’ve been alternately patient and impatient, excited and nostalgic, calm and anxious. On my good days. 🙂
    That is one gorgeous last photo!

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    1. You made me chuckle. All those emotions wrapped up into a new—on one day! 🙂 New chapters do evoke all those emotions, don’t they? Thanks for the words on the photo. I love watching the changing of the leaves on the mountains. 🙂

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  5. Yes. I have been surprised many times in the paths God has taken me. But as long as he is there and it is where he wants me to be, it’s all good. It’s all good.

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    1. There is peace knowing He’s with us in the New times of life, isn’t there? I’m not always comfortable with where He places me, but I’m learning to rest when I know it’s where He wants me. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!

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    1. Oh, I like that. A blank page is a gift. Great perspective, Lisa. And entering those times of New with wonder? Love that. I’m not always so great at that either. 😉

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