Nobody told me how hard and lonely change is.

Most of us willingly wallow in our pain a while, not because we like it, but because its familiarity offers security. We find some comfort in our pain because at least it holds no surprises.

When our trust in God is high, we are more willing to change. And we open ourselves to the indications for movement in a new direction.

Each of us must find our own willingness. Each of us must develop attentiveness to the signs that repeatedly invite changes in our behavior. But most of all, each of us has to travel the road to change, singly.

Changes we must find the courage to make will never be exactly like someone else's changes.

Yet, even if we watched the trees carefully, every minute of the day, we could not actually see the colors change.

Change requires time, preparation, and patience. 

To make the changes we want, we need to let go of unhealthy but comfortable patterns that we're stuck in, the way the trees let their colors change and finally let go of their leaves altogether.

We can't have total change right now, no matter how much we want it.

It's important to accept both who we are now and who we are becoming. 

Just as the tree trusts without question that its leaves will grow and lets go of them when the time comes, we can believe in our own power to grow and let go of our accomplishments when the time is right. 

When we do, we can be assured that our lives will blossom again, like trees in the spring coming to life after a cold winter.