I had some doubt choosing to keep this word as the primary connector of my thoughts this month because sometimes adaptable can take on an overly negative or positive.
For example: it’s good to be adaptable when making life changes or simply growing up, but it can be an irksome trait if you simply adapt yourself to your surroundings and lose track of yourself in the process. I also have it linked with evolution and survival of the fittest, or “do not be conformed to this world”, which, for me, carries baggage rooted in some of the concepts of my young faith which are now in the process of becoming a more nuanced.
It can be hard to separate the meaning of adaptable from all the politics and social expectations it’s tangled in.
But I want to claim it back to as an impartial player in my life. It’s not the referee arbitrating between two opposing teams: my inner world vs. my outer world, the expectations of my outer world vs those of my people’s outer world, or any combination me myself or I vs them.
Its the impartial player I can use to mediate and cheer for all the inner and outer worlds among us where we each choose to think, believe, and live in delightful variation in the very same world.
Because these multitude of variations will clash.
And may continue to clash no matter what happens or what anyone does.
But when I choose to remember the adaptable nature of my human self, our unique lives, and the world we all inhabit, life might not seem like such a struggle
The power to change is ours. We can adapt ourselves, our environments, or our situations.
We just have to remember it’s not about adapting to any one specific unchangeable. It’s about realizing we can change nearly anything in our lives. Even if we can only change our perspective, we can still change something.
It’s not about one side ceding to the other. It’s a constant remixing of ideas about life, time, relationships and everything in between to make sense and wholeness more common in our day to day experience.
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What’s your experience of the word “adaptable”? Share in the comments or I’d love to connect with you on instagram!
Erika Shirk 
You’re speaking my language here, the way you conceptualize – and wrestle with older perceptions of – adaptability. Adaptability is not a partner to codependency, people-pleasing, or a marker of religious piety (read: do not conform). It is not a call to lose our identity in the sea of others. With you, I think of adaptability as this ability to live in the tension of uncertainty and change; to delight in the gift of diverse thinking and being, while still remaining true to ourselves. I appreciate the depth of thought you offer in your writing. It’s always refreshing to find.
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I love this comment. Thank you for adding clarity to my own mind wanderings and for your encouragement, AC. I really appreciate the phrase ‘tension of uncertainty and change’ it reminds of the placefulness of it but also allows complexity.
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