Change change
Ben Franklin penned the phrase that nothing is certain in life but death and taxes. It is true, there are certain occurrences that are common to everyone, ones that cannot be avoided: man cannot escape his mortality or paying his taxes. However, I would like to add another certainty: Change. You can be sure, although human nature is prone to feeling comfortable with constants, mostly unexpected and sometimes expected changes will alter our lives; sometimes with terrific outcomes and other times ruining even the best laid plans. With some changes we are overcome with excitement and happiness and others cause despair and frustration. Either way, change is here to stay. It was here before our beginning and will be here after we leave.
Although life requires us to be responsible, we must remember that even if we were to spend every spare moment on planning, preparing and prearranging, change is inevitable. Nothing will keep life from occasionally striking down our careful strategizing. Everything goes out the window. Time stands still, moments are flattened into immobility. No one is immune. It is a guarantee. But here’s another certainty. We are programmed to pick ourselves up when life becomes suddenly scary, blowing to bits our lives. It may take some time, but we can stand up and face our challenges. Sometimes it requires grieving, or change of direction, or even reorganizing whole segments of one's life; however, impossible it may seem at the moment, we can upright, adjust, modify. Change change.
By nature, some of us are methodical and set in our ways. Change is difficult for us. Being sporadic is discomfiting. But because change is inescapable, we have to stop trying to hold it at arms length. Perhaps we need to look at change differently. Maybe change is the fuse that propels us forward into a place that’s entirely new and different than we would go. Maybe there will be another person to love or another opportunity to search. Perhaps it allows for another variation of who we are. When we realize that everything won’t always remain as it is, we give ourselves a bit of breathing room.We begin to accept change for what it is: Growth to understand ourselves.
By all means, have a plan B in your back pocket, but don’t rely on that not changing also. If nothing ever changed in life, day after day, where nothing was different, we would never have an opportunity to advance or expand our heart and mind. Without realizing it, we begin to realize that change essentially means we are alive; the ability to experience new experiences, feel new feelings, be an integral part of life around you. Sometimes it is messy and sometimes it is marvelous, but we cannot understand the one without the other.
So the next time change drop-kicks you to your knees or elates you to dance for joy, try to take a moment and reflect on the stunning, new change and follow the direction it is taking you. Carpe diem!
