Adaptation

I have a soft spot in my heart for children’s literature. Even if it can seem naive, there’s often wonderful pearls of wisdom for adults in pages meant for children. I came across this particular pearl last night in Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love by Patricia Martin. The quoted bit is a conversation between Harry (a top-hat-wearing daddy long legs) and a skunk, in which Harry tries to explain why Lulu (an adolescent girl) is upset about the new baby brother that’s come into her family:

“A bit of a surprise to us all, granted. But a most welcome surprise, I might add.”
“Toots don’t seem to think so,” said the skunk, pointing with his thumb in her direction.
“Miss Lulu does not take well to change, I’m afraid,” said Harry.
“Yeah, so… the world’s tough all over,” said the skunk.

Change, by definition, causes stress, whether it’s the good kind or the bad kind. And since change is a part of life, we’re always undergoing stress, to varying degrees, in some way.

The world might not be as tough as the skunk suggests, but how we deal with change (and the stress that it causes) determines so much about how happy we are in our lives and in our libraries, or in any workplace or organization for that matter.