Marilyn Gustin

These days, the topic I hear the most about is: CHANGE. We are startled—or frightened—by it. It’s happening so fast. There are so many changes. And so on. The general feeling seems to be that change is something new, unfamiliar and somehow not right.

But that’s simply a misperception. There are a lot of noticeable changes now, indeed, and they may be happening faster than they used to—it certainly seems so. Yet change has always been with us. In fact, the wisest of us humans have noted repeatedly that the only constant in human life is change itself.

Our bodies change from infancy to age. Our family configurations change, influenced by age, illness, travel, education, accident, births and deaths. Nature changes around us: the weather, the growth-and-death cycle of everything, and sometimes huge and dramatic natural events, like storms or earthquakes. Nations change. Forms of government change. Positions of power change. Ideas and religions change. Everything changes, all the time.

And yet many of us resist change. We don’t like it. We may be afraid of it. We want things to stay the way they are—that is, if they are currently pleasant. Yet we also seek change, don’t we? Our discontent drives us to something new. Our longing wants things to change, maybe inside ourselves, maybe in our circumstances.

Still, sought or unsought, change is not going to go away. So how can we maximize the good in our experiences of change?

First, we can relax a little and allow ourselves to be interested in the reality of constant change. We could, for example, ask ourselves over breakfast, “Hm. I wonder what changes I will experience today?” Then approach the day with simple curiosity.

Second, we can make peace with this truth: there are no guarantees. A telephone call can change our life. Accident or death can happen in minutes, with or without warning. So, we can practice approaching each day as precious and enriching in itself. And let tomorrow—or the next ten minutes—take care of their own.

Third, we can express gratitude for what is, right now. This very moment always offers us peace, even if it’s challenging at the same time. This very moment always offers us love, if we connect to our own heart. This very moment includes amazing blessings: what we have, what we enjoy, what we find beautiful. There is so much to cherish! And when we learn to do this steadily, changes simply bring more of the same. We only need to see them and appreciate them.

You might want to try these three steps for a week or so, to discover what happens to your daily experience. I guarantee it’ll be worth it!

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Tags: change, making peace with change, relax a little, simple curiosity

This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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