My Brave MIL

There are many reasons to admire someone. We often choose those heroes who risk their life to protect or serve or maintain all the qualities of life we hold dear. But there also is another kind of bravery I admire - someone who chooses to make deliberate changes in his/her life based on what he/she believes is the next step in this great journey on earth.

My mother-in-law is in the midst of such a journey. She has chosen to move from her home of more than 35 years, leave its sale in the hands of God at His time of choosing, and live in a new state, city, house. Granted, she'll be a few doors from her daughter, son-in-law and two of her grandbabies, but this is a BIG change.

She has retired from her job, has sold, traded or trashed a houseful of belongings, and is starting anew. We are excited for her - it must feel like an adventure in so many ways - but we also know it is hard to leave familiar surroundings.

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." Chicken Soup guy Alan Cohen