ChAnGe

Change is so fascinating.  You absolutely love it and dread it at the same time.  There's nothing more refreshing than a new start and nothing more nerve wracking than throwing off your comfortable schedule.

Remember that life altering change from childhood to adulthood?  You lost all the magic around you and your eyes were opened to the real world.  But then, you also gain the new and exciting emotions of love, independence and responsibility.

One of the characteristics of change that has always been so sensitive to me is the idea of turning real life into memories.  Things you can no longer hold on to, almost like it was only a dream. You almost have to exercise a fragment of faith to remind yourself that it actually happened and was in fact "you" for a time.

I've always wondered if deep down inside an individual, you are still always the same person, no matter what you face or experience, like that piece of your soul is permanently there. Or if we slowly fade and dissolve into a completely different, perhaps stronger person and conclude our lives as an unrecognizable being compared to the moment we began.  Like how your skin forms new layers, always growing, improving and being reborn over and over again.  Do our personalities shed off like old layers?  Perhaps we'll have to say goodbye to the person we are today because some day it will molt away and no longer be a part of who we are? 

After visiting Vegas, our soon to be new home, it finally hit me how real our future is.  Even though we talked about it for so long, I don't think we'll be able to completely prepare ourselves for when it happens.

  Three years from now, I'll be a completely different person with new goals and new experiences.  I'm so afraid!  But I'm so excited!

In Rexburg, I was introduced to my favorite choir piece of all time, Omnia Sol (Let Your Heart be Staid) by Z. Randall Stroope. We had to somehow find a way to compare this music to our lives.  Some chose to look at it from a spiritual, preexistence/eternal perspective, others chose their 'transition into college' experience, or a relationship with a friend or family member.  Whatever we chose, it impacted all of us so powerfully.  There really is something you can't grasp and unexplainable about what change really is and what it does to a human being. 

Omnia Sol (Let Your Heart be Staid)
Z. Randall Stroope
Somewhere far from nowhere, I grew both strong and tall…
Longing to become, but knowing not the path at all!
But the footprints of the winter melted to fields of spring;
One last embrace before I cross the threshold: To life we sing!

O stay your soul and leave my heart its song!
O stay your hand; the journey may be long!
And when we part, and sorrow can’t be sway’d….
Remember when, and let your heart be staid.
Omnia sol temperat,
Absens in remota.
Ama me fideliter,
Fidem mean noto.
Weave the dance and raise the chorus; grieve no more…
Through the strength of Orion, find refuge from the shore!
Let courage be your oar, let passion be your sail;
Wisdom and truth will guide your deep heart’s yearning, though all travail!
O stay your soul and leave my heart its song!
O stay your hand; the journey may be long!
And when we part, and sorrow can’t be sway’d…
Remember when, and let your heart be staid.
Omnia sol temperat,
Absens in remota.
Ama me fideliter,
Fidem mean noto.
Omnia sol temperat, (Ah ah ah ah ah ma)
And when we part, and sorrow can’t be sway’d…
Remember when…
Remember when…
And let your heart be staid… Be staid.

(Translation from The Latin:)
The sun warms everything,
even while I am far away.
Love me faithfully,
and know that I am faithful.