Throughout the year, times have changed. 

Times change, things that held so much importance previously, seem to carry less weight now.

Times change, people have come and gone, with the wind,

with the seasons.

The days and weeks and months of this year have come and gone; and as well as times changing ~ in my life ~ the time itself actually changed.

At the beginning of this year I hadn't lived in foreign country,

by myself.

Never had I stepped quite so far out of my comfort zone.

I had only ever lived, or even spent time, in one single time zone.

When the literal time changes, we change, our bodies change

and adapt.

Just as we adapt to the spring-forward or leap-back that we are well accustomed to.

Everything is off, shifted,

awake in the dark, asleep in the light.

But the wrongness is always temporary.

This year I became accustomed to living in someone else's country, living in someone else's time zone.

a time zone equally as foreign to me as the country in which I lived.

A change in time is a change in perspective, a change in perspective is potential

growth

prosperity

opening of doors, and eyes.

The time zone, the foreign, alien time zone became my everything, my every day.

I not only discovered that I could live somewhere else, but that I could thrive!

Not only did I love it, but I recommend it. Deeply. 

To you I say:

Step so far out of your comfort zone that you can no longer see the line. 

Step so far away from your time zone that the clock you used before is no longer relevant. 

Gain perspective.

Come to terms with the inevitable fact that times change.

Get comfortable with the idea that a literal time change could mean growth.

At the beginning of 2016 I was less confident, less aware. 

Now that I have got my foot in the door, now that my perspective has broadened, I plan to keep on exploring. 

I plan to continue being amazed by the expansiveness of the world, and the comparatively miniscule part that I have caught sight of thus far.

Times change ~ time changes