Paradigm Shift

I lived in the same house until I was 14 or so years old. I knew every inch of that house- yesterday I was remembering how I used to love to find the algebra book on the third shelf up on the right hand side of the bookcase in the living room, and pretend that I could do that kind of work (I was probably 6 or 7 at the time, and ironically I still had to pretend that way when I was in high school actually taking algebra). In fact, I knew where every book was on those shelves, and spent many many hours in front of it poring though them. I learned a lot from that bookcase.
When I was a teenager, we moved. We only moved across the street, but everything changed. All those books were split and reordered and culled through and now, going back to my parents' house, I would never know where to find a particular book, or even know if those books were still there. It's a whole new world on Perkins street.
This, then, may be what paradigm shift is like. That phrase keeps coming back, in every workshop I go to. It's kind of weird how that keeps coming back into my experience. Yesterday I spent the day at a Generations of Faith workshop, the same workshop I'd participated in 5 years ago or so, with my former parish. Of course, all initial energies toward it fizzled quickly there because it would be too hard, and wouldn't bring in enough money. Sigh.
This time, though, I was with a team of 6 wonderful ministers who could see the possibilities- not just of jumping into GOF with both feet but really that we can do whatever will be best for our parish- we can "think outside the box" and do better than we are doing. I realized that this is the first time in memory where I've felt HOPE. Hope for moving forward, hope for growth, hope for fruitful and respectful collaboration. It's a whole new world.