Change

​When I sit and stare meaningfully into the middle distance, I sometimes notice some things.
It does not seem like that long ago that Merril was going to work at 6am in complete darkness.  At home I would start to see things.  Not see things as in “there’s a rhino!  Where?  I don’t see it.  You are seeing things.”  (Just because they are not native to this area, or state or country, and have never been sighted outside of a zoo, it could happen.)  I mean things become visible.  At home, I notice the sheds.  Then I notice the fence.  It is not long before I notice a lot of things.
I have a mate who catches the train to work.  He described it better than me.  He has said at such and such an hour you can see but need a light on inside.  After a certain time you don’t.
While away we noticed the tide.  It was always in a different place at the same time every morning.
The good thing is, this sort of change is predictable.  In fact, we have tide charts that tell where the tide will be six months from now.  The same is true for the phases of the moon.  Calendars note each month, when the full moon will be.  This year seems to be racing to its end.
I have mentioned before how life is like reading a book in the evening.  If my head is down, I only notice how dark it has gotten when I look up. It is what I call creeping darkness.  It too is predictable, and has been predicted.
The thing is, change is inevitable, but a lot of change sneaks up, rather than confronts.  If tides were high at random times we would accommodate it, but not necessarily be happy about it.  The same goes for the sun getting up.  If it decided it would get up today at one am, and different times regularly, it would throw our sleeping patterns into disarray.
I do see what appears to be random change happening all over and a lot of it is not good.  To me, not all change is good, and not all change is bad.  Computers and spread sheets and word documents are for me a change for the better.  Kids stuck with their heads in games, and our reluctance to actually talk face to face are for me changes for the worse.
There are other changes happening that I see and don’t necessarily like, but a book I am reading has an ending that seems to reflect what is going on.