When Life Shakes You Up: A Reflection on Upheaval

I’m not one for change.

Unless it’s something I really want — something exciting and obviously good — like getting a surprise upgrade from Economy to First Class (hasn’t happened yet, but I’m still holding out hope) or a shiny new phone with all the latest bells and whistles… then sure, I’m all for it.

But the kind of change upheaval brings?The kind I didn’t ask for?The kind that barges in without permission and turns everything upside down?

No thank you!

That kind of upheaval makes me want to cry, scream, spit, and stomp the ground.

And it did.

So, like I do in the good moments and the hard ones, I turned to my journal to help me deal with it:

Things were fine the way they were. I don’t have time for this!I’m already overwhelmed with everything else I need to handle.Why can’t things just stay the way they are?I just want to count on what’s familiar — what I’ve come to rely on, what feels normal and safe.I don’t want to have to start over!! Not with a job, not with a new routine, not with a new way of living… not anything!!!!

After scribbling my way through all that frustration, I paused, took a breath, and then this quiet question bubbled up:

Were things really that good?Was that situation really the best it could be?

That’s when I realized something wonderful:

Upheaval isn’t the enemy I thought it was.

In fact, sometimes it’s exactly what we need.

There are times when upheaval becomes necessary for our good —especially when we’ve grown so attached to the way things arethat we can’t even imagine something better waiting for us.

When we’ve done the same things, the same way, for so long,it’s easy to stop noticing what’s no longer working.

That’s where upheaval steps in.

It shakes us loose from what’s no longer serving us.It forces us to ask the questions we’ve been avoiding.

It does for us what we, in our apathy or complacency, can’t do for ourselves.

It clears out what we’ve been too afraid to let go.

Sometimes upheaval gently invites us out of the nest —and sometimes it shoves us out without warning.Either way, it gets us moving.

It stirs us from our stuckness, nudges us away from what we’ve settled for,and gives us the chance to find something better.

Maybe upheaval is just life’s way of calling us into action.

A quiet but insistent voice saying:

You’ve outgrown this. You deserve more. You’re ready for better.

So if you’re in the middle of change — the kind you didn’t ask for, the kind that makes you want to stomp and scream — you’re not alone.

And maybe, just maybe, this upheaval isn’t trying to ruin everything.Maybe it’s trying to make space for something better.

You don’t have to rush to figure it all out.Just stay open.Pay attention.And trust that whatever feels uncertain right now might be leading you somewhere good.

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