Cha-cha-cha-changes . . .

Changes are inevitable. It's how we respond to them that really matters.

Often, we get caught up in our routine which narrows our perspective and awareness. Same old, same old. Kinda like sleepwalking.

It's important to distance ourselves from our familiar surroundings and give ourselves an extended length of time and new scenery to open our minds and see beyond our own little world.

Recently I have returned from visiting my Mom back east for her 90th birthday. The city I grew up in and returned to after living out West for several years held no draw except for family. So it was a surprise when I spent time in the old neighborhood that I found myself nostalgic about the past. The house my Mom currently lives in is where we moved during my high school years. I was resentful that I was displaced from my beloved home to this new area that made be feel like an ousider. I refused to change high schools and remained at the old one, even though it was a distance away. My father drove me in the morning and I often walked home through the slush, snow storms in the winter and downpours in the spring. Then I would wait until my mother came home to let me in to our house. Being a teanager I was not trusted with a key to the house. My father was rarely around (which was pleasant) then gone for good (even better). After a painful breakup, I moved back to that house while I pulled myself together and sought a new life for myself. A lot happened during the times I lived there.

In doing the day to day chores while there, I would hear songs from my past that connected me to the area and driving past places I frequented, the memories flashed before me like a movie trailer. I rarely ventured out of the little community/suburb of Detroit and enjoyed my stay there quite a bit. Plus I spent a lot of time with my Mom, who is struggling to be independent, in spite of the dementia. I wish we lived closer so I can see her regularly but the 2,000 mile distance, cost of airfare and car rental takes a bite out of the limited budget and resources. I was glad I could be there for the time I had.

Now back to my life, I went straight for the routine. I felt I needed it because the trip was so emotionally and physically draining. With the weekend here, I decided to treat myself to breakfast at the popular cafe across the alleyway of the back of my apartment building. When I first moved here, that alley way was dirty, smelled of urine and the homeless set up their sleeping quarters in the parking structures under the apartment buildings. Pretty disgusting. My parking space was there and my Honda was broken into several times. Since then I graduated to inside secured parking.

But today, I walked down the alley to the cafe and discovered that the apartments (some newly renovated) had cleaned up those parking areas, numbers painted on the spaces, clean and lacking any foul smell and not a sleeping bag in site. A nice and welcome change.

At the cafe, I sat at my usual table and tried to break from my routine and order something different but went with the favorite -- Vivian's scramble. Some changes are slower in coming.