Change.

Happy New Year.

This last year was an interesting year. There was an eerie feeling that we have seen all of this before. We experienced the 100 year anniversary to the start of World War One. We witnessed a reemergence of a strong, empire seeking Russia. Technology appeared to fail us with the total disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight. An historic election took place and then in a total reversal of fortune, the victors bent their knee to the loser, shocking an enraged electorate. Oil prices dropped like a rock, encouraging some and causing others to wonder what the second and third order effects will be in a few months.

The new year will no doubt be full of good and bad news. Tragedies will occur. Celebrations will be made for achievements of all kinds. We all will experience change in some form or fashion. Life is change.

Today our family attended the last Mass our chaplain will be saying here at our home station before he moves on to his next assignment. Tears, hugs, and laughter were shared all around.

For those of us in the military change is the only real constant in our life. We develop relationships knowing that at some point, there will be separation. Family life is especially impacted by this. Most people think of just deployments. It is much more. It is sometimes hard to plan life events due to the high operations tempo that can fill the military life. Our children sometimes wonder just how long that they will get to spend with the friends that they make. We look in wonder at some of the families that we know that have been in one house or the same town for more that five or ten years. To us that is a lifetime. To have that kind of stability in our life seems almost a dream. Yet, change still affects those people too.

Births, graduations, marriages, and death provide change that visits all of us. These are personal changes. Nations also experience changes. These changes can be positive or negative. We are living through changes right now. For some, the changes being made are what they want to happen. For many of us, these same changes are something to be fought against.

History is full of similar stories of positive and negative change. Many people have walked the same paths with the same concerns and apprehensions.