The Familiar, the Unfamiliar

The pattern of my days sometimes seems so calm, so normal, so regular. Occasionally I wish for a little change, for some out-of-the-ordinary excitement. But when I imagine some of the possible changes that could come I find I am grateful for and prefer the everyday calm and normal.

Robin Oliveira wrote in My Name is Mary Sutter:

“Always astonishment, the world over,
when one is affected by upheaval.
We are bored by the familiar,
but terrified by the unfamiliar.”

Perhaps not terrified but definitely stressed and certainly uncomfortable when a situation causes upheaval in my life. Sometimes I think how well I handle upheaval depends on how much advance notice I have. If I have a plan of attack, I handle it much better. But by its definition, upheaval is usually the result of a major, unexpected event.

How about you? How do you handle upheaval in your life?