the dolphin swing
If you know me, you know that my all-time favorite animal is a dolphin. I’m pretty sure that stemmed from my favorite thing to do as a small child:
sleep in my dolphin swing.
here’s a pic for reference
I can’t help but laugh every time I look at this picture. It just makes sense.
I would give anything to be back in this very moment in my life. The sun on my back, not a care in the world, safe, comfortable, secure, warm, rested. Back before I realized that my parents aren’t real life superheroes, before I had to choose a major, before I had my heart broken, before I experienced what it feels like to lose someone I love, before I hated change.
But then again, if I erased every painful or scary circumstance in my life, I wouldn’t know what it is to trust in Jesus.
I wouldn’t know what it is to have a Heavenly Father who is my superhero, who sent His Son to save me.
I wouldn’t have believed that I needed saving —
Growing up is scary. It comes with understanding. It comes with experiencing love and loss.
But growing up is also beautiful. It comes with wisdom. It comes with adventures. It comes with learning new things.
And what I’ve learned from growing up, is that change can be a good thing.
Although I miss the days when change was exciting like turning 16 or coming to college, I still smile when change is scary like getting older or moving away from friends and family. There’s new opportunities presented to you to grow and to experience life in a way you never could if you didn’t step out of your comfort zone. There’s more room for you to depend on the Lord.
CHANGE by Taylor Beth:
“I’ve seen Carolina mountains
and the love in a boy’s eyes
And I’ve danced under the stars of a north Texas sky
I’ve held the hands of strangers
Around a dinner table
We said a prayer of thanks,
Then talked about being unstable
21 years of life
And I am still a child
There’s so much that I don’t know
I wanna keep it that way for a while
Cause change is still a scary thing
That I have yet to believe is good
But sometimes it can be good
Like the change in the weather when fall starts to roll in
The change of heart when you forgive a best friend
The change in my pocket that I easily forget
And how it changes my perspective of how comfortably I live
Oh I’ve been changing all my life
And if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that
You’re gonna be alright.”
This is just a piece of a song that I wrote last year. I turned 22 in October. I still feel like a child. And i honestly need to recognize more that it’s okay to feel like a child and to just be held sometimes. Things are still changing in my life. Things that I never thought would happen. And a younger me would’ve been terrified, but now I can accept it. I can look at my life from a new perspective and confidently say that I wouldn’t change a thing about growing up or the things I’ve been through.
It’s made me the girl I am today.
Change can be GOOD! Even when you can’t see it in the moment.
(I still miss that dolphin swing though)