Kaleidoscopes

I love kaleidoscopes. You know the tubes with mirrors inside, filled with pebbles or chips of glass? You turn one end of the tube and the colored bits shift, reflecting off the mirrors to make a beautiful stained glass looking bit of gorgeousness. The balance of those chips, however is so delicate that if you tried to hand the toy to someone else to see your view, it is rearranged. Much like life. My view of a set of circumstances isn't like yours. At times the balance of our lives is on a knife's edge, one move feeling like it can cause a large shift. A shift that will change our view forever.

We can look at our lives like this, colored bits arranged into a beautiful bit of stained glass. Things come into our lives, causing the tube to rotate. All the gorgeousness tumbles into disarray. Eventually like the kaleidoscope, the picture falls into focus becoming once more beautiful. You don't think so if you do not let go of the last picture. Just the same as in our lives, if we hang onto what our last 'scene' was, we cannot see the beautiful picture right before us. And unlike a kaleidoscope, the rearranging of our lives isn't as fast. It doesn't feel easy, no slithering tumbling that looks effortless.

Imagine for a minute that you are one of the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. The balance of the tapestry is so delicate, you never know where your position in the whole is. Then some outside influence, much much bigger than yourself, comes along and turns the tube... off you go. Tumbling, for as long as the turner wants. Tumbling for as long as the changes keep coming. To that small bit of glass, it must feel much like it does when our lives shift.

At times the shifts are small, and we weather the change easily. The colored bits of our lives slightly rearrange, we settle back in. Other times, the turning feels never ending. There may be momentary pauses, never enough to get a look at the new tapestry we are a part of. Those are the times where the opportunity for real growth comes. The chance to let go and slither with the turning, allowing life to settle us into a new picture.

Trust it, the place you end up will be beautiful.

Trust it, the bits will stop tumbling, they will settle into another delicate, yet beautiful balance point, we will feel again as part of a beautiful tapestry.

Trust it, we really have no choice, and the struggle makes weariness.

That is all the musings for tonight.
I have been challenged by a friend to write. Write how I talk, write what I think, just write. So I will try.