For every season

"To everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones,
and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

* * * * *

It is time for a change.

You may have noticed rather a drastic one. Sorry for any nasty shock that may have been.

My old background was sort of special to me, if in rather a macabre way. It was home for me for nearly two years. But it was dark - something my sister (the only family member to ever be given this blog address, though I wouldn't put it past my clever mother to have figured it out, given the amount of time she's spent with me and my laptop) complained vociferously about. It was comfortable and it was the place in which I wrote about Gabriel.

Letting go of that was surprisingly difficult.

But, I think, I need some change. And perhaps letting a little sunlight in is not such a bad thing.

Though this isn't meant to be an extended metaphor, I realized after having chosen the template and played with the colors, that in some ways it is.

There is another change; one I'm hesitant to speak of. Perhaps, once it's settled in more, I'll address it more.

Beyond this visual, I doubt there will be any other changes. The content is much as it has ever been, one extreme to another, the grief that I live with every day, the bits of joy that permeate it. The hope of another child, the disappointments of that journey (ugh, that is such an overused word these days, isn't it? And yet. . .).

So, let's try this out for awhile. Let's hope sunnier days are ahead, or at least some light in the darkness of the months ahead, as the world we live in collides with the world we never left, as the journey around the sun begins anew.

I guess I hope that I can find the balances in the times, that I can find the way to healing and dancing alongside mourning and weeping.