Intersection Column | Learning to Adapt

by Irene Hannon

Someone once told me that life is comprised of a series of adjustments. That we spend most of our days adapting to new circumstances and challenges, with a few quiet interludes in between.

The older I get, the more I see the truth in that.

Lately, I’ve been seeing it more than usual because my husband and I recently moved from the home we went to as newlyweds and never intended to leave. It was a wrenching experience, prompted by a relentlessly upsetting situation in our neighborhood that made living there no longer tolerable. So after years of stress and angst, we finally realized that this was a situation where the Serenity Prayer was applicable. We had to accept the things we couldn’t change, find the courage to change the things we could, and trust the Lord to give us the wisdom to know the difference.

Bittersweet as the decision was, we said goodbye to the house and gardens we loved. Because in the end, we acknowledged that sometimes adapting means saying “enough” and moving on.

The main characters in my latest suspense novel know all about that process. My historical anthropologist heroine, Cara Tucker, has a unique and ongoing challenge in her life—one that has shaped who she is and how she reacts to the world around her and which has forced her to adapt her life in many ways to accommodate certain limitations. My hero, Sheriff Brad Adams, is also still struggling to adapt and move on after the tragedy that upended his world. When these two are brought together on a remote estate where puzzling deaths, a century-old mystery, a buried treasure, and a dying language complicate the quiet research interlude Cara had expected, all of the coping skills they’ve learned through the years come into play.

Of course, not everyone who faces challenges does so with integrity and honor, as my main characters do. That’s where the villains in my books enter the picture. Instead of finding noble and principled ways to deal with sticky challenges and adapt to difficult circumstances with integrity, they look for an easy way out. But the easy way isn’t always the safe way for those who thwart their plans—as my hero and heroine discover.

Hopefully, most of us don’t run into people who adapt by undermining—or even hurting—others. But individuals who lack a solid moral foundation have no scruples about doing that. We see this play out every day in the news headlines . . . and sometimes much closer to home.

Still, while I write about villains who choose all the wrong ways to adapt to their circumstances, throughout my life the people in my inner circle have been excellent role models for how to deal with hardships and challenges gracefully, responsibly, and without bitterness.

My father is a good example of that. He grew up in rural Ireland, in a tiny cottage without electricity or running water. At one point after he came to the United States, he held three jobs to provide for his family. And I never once heard him complain about the sometimes hard hand he’d been dealt. He just carried on, doing what had to be done with fortitude and grace. He changed what he could, and accepted what he couldn’t with quiet serenity and admirable perspective. As he once told me, he might not have had all the worldly pleasures some people crave, but he had everything that mattered . . . family, faith, and love. And for that he was deeply grateful.

I call that living with grace.

So whenever life gets crazy . . . whenever things seem out of control and challenges abound . . . I call up his example and the Serenity Prayer. I remind myself that accepting things I can’t change sometimes means letting go and moving on. It means leaving behind a life I’ve loved and adapting to a new environment.

But it also means believing better days are ahead. It means keeping hope in my heart. It means trusting that a happy ending is possible.

Just like Cara and Brad do in Out of Time.

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About the Author

Irene Hannon is the bestselling, award-winning author of 65+ contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels. She is a three-time winner of the prestigious RITA Award from Romance Writers of America and a member of RWA’s elite Hall of Fame. Learn more about her work at www.irenehannon.com.

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About the Book

For historical anthropologist Cara Tucker, the chance to spend a sabbatical semester on a remote country estate—with full access to its vast library and century-old journals—is a dream come true . . . until a series of strange incidents begins to turn her dream into a nightmare. Beset by danger, Cara works with Sheriff Brad Adams to try to untangle the clues.