The seasons of love

Not so long ago I wrote a blog about initiative and how important it is to be the first to greet. I am putting this into practice. And it feels right. Before I saw the example of greeting first that Heaven Admin and Stephen exemplify so well, I thought of myself as friendly. I wasn't unfriendly, but now I am friendlier.

Since the blog about greeting first, I have thought a lot about initiative, wondering what initiative really is. I think it is taking action. It is not waiting.  There have been a few times in my life when I really did take initiative. Usually it was when I had no other choice, so I don't know if that counts.

Not only have I in the past been waiting for others to greet me, I realize that I have also been waiting  for others to say goodbye as well. I am talking about lasting relationships. I would sense a change, fear it, wait for it, let it happen but not address it until there was no other recourse.  In my lack of initiative, I probably was pulling the wool over my eyes for as long as I possibly could.

I think I have never wanted to say goodbye. And even when someone said goodbye, I didn't want to let go. I wanted to stay in touch and still be friends. Maybe most people aren't like that, or I just haven't known them. The truth is I never want to say goodbye. I have never wanted anything to end.  I have wanted life to always be at the peak of summertime.

I guess not taking initiative is floating around, skirting the issue, pretending everything is the same as it once was, even when it isn't. How does one take initiative in pointing out the changes in a relationship without being reproachful? I guess the truth is that people change, and their feelings change. What is there to reproach someone for anyway? It is something that happened to them.

God said in a yet unpublished Heavenletter:

"Who can stem the tide of life or the seasons of love?"