JC is in a matrix of change.  My hair has changed, my schedule has changed, and my life is changing.  Change is good, but I prefer paper personally.  My stylist has cut out the last strands of my blonde highlights and the chemical relaxer (that I affectionately dubbed creamy crack) from my hair.  My hair is officially all natural now.  It's great most days until Mother Nature decides to transform my flat ironed straightened locks by spraying moisture or humidity into my personal space.  And poof my hair changes as fast as a traffic light changes from yellow to red while you're in the middle of the intersection wondering how that little camera caught your exact expression and mailed it to your address with a violation attached.  Change is good.

My writing time has been back burnered by two XX chromosomes and one XY chromosome who assault my personal space each summer like ants at a picnic.  Their little schedules and needs superimposing themselves into my carefully scheduled day.  Since texting while driving is ill advised, driving while typing on a laptop would probably land me a life sentence in a correctional institute called "Stupid" or a spa named "Rest in Peace."

But the biggest reason I haven't blogged in almost sixty days is that my zip code is changing.  My husband landed a great new opportunity, and poof, we're moving to the other side of the Mason-Dixon line.  If you've ever moved out of state, you know what my life now looks like and you're probably wondering how I have the time to blog right now.  If you've never moved anywhere, let alone out of state, you may not fully appreciate the barrage of emails, texts and phone calls that have consumed every small crevice of my time. If you need a visual, take a box of salt, pout it into a bowl and that's our life.  Every aspect of our life is now changing.  But change is good.  Having already done the inter-state move thing once before, I know this to be fact.  But it usually takes your head about ninety days to realize the good in the change.

I was in the process of prepping book three, Chemistry, Chaos & God's Grace for publication when the change rolled into my life like a tsunami.  Just like the girls in my story who are smacked with major life changes that take their breath away, I was forced to regroup and re-prioritize and assume the title Chief Operating Officer of Change.  "Change is good" is something that we tell ourselves will be good for us in the long run.  Like death or a job loss or being dumped by your boyfriend, those in your circle will convince you that "change is good."  And they're usually right, but it will take your head and your heart weeks, months or maybe years to agree with that sentiment.  If you're a teen and you're told that you're moving out of state, it might take weeks before you can verbalize a coherent statement to your parents.  

The timing of change is oftentimes inconvenient or clumsy.  But change frees us up to imagine that we can have a different life.  It moves us to the next box in the game of life.  It prevents us from being stuck on stupid.  Change is good but paper is better.  Four quarters spend the same as a one dollar bill, but I prefer paper money any day, it's quieter and easier to manage.  Just like having a plan to manage the change in your life helps you better manage the change.   Change will happen in your life.  Someone that you love will die.  Someone will break your heart.  One day you will move from home to a strange place and have to make new friends.  

I am four chapters from completing Sunshine on Sundays, the final book in the Black Diamond Series.  I will embrace the change that is jingling in my pocket and accept that my zip code is six more digits that I will have to commit to memory.  Change is good.