Reflection: On Change
Changing seasons.
“There is nothing permanent, except change.”
Change. Everything, even on the smallest atomic scale, is in constant flux.
Some change we consider to be good. Take Spring, for instance, where life begins to bud and the temperatures begin rise. Many of us perceive this kind of change as vibrant, refreshing, and “good.”
Other change we perceive as “bad” — a failed relationship, a job layoff, a personal crisis, a death. This type of change we perceive as bad, because to varying degrees, we experience pain with the shift.
I’ve recently reflected more on the concept of pain. Really, I’ve come to believe we only experience pain when we wish reality was different — when we have trouble accepting what is or what has changed. We wish we still had the relationship; we wish we still had our job; we wish there was no personal crisis; we wish those who passed were still in our life.
The truth is though: everything that changes, was meant to change. Change is simply inevitable. It is part of life. The only thing that is absolutely permanent is change itself.
Ultimately, though, we have a special power. We get to choose how we perceive the change. We can label it however we want, or we can simply see it for what it is, accept it, and understand this change was always meant to occur.
I recently experienced a bit of change that felt uncomfortable, because I was unable (or perhaps, to some degree, unwilling) to accept the changed mind state of another person. Once I fully accepted that person’s mind state was out of my control—and, ultimately, that it had changed—I let it go, and felt so much more at peace.
All I can really control is myself, not my external environment. I can choose to act in alignment with acceptance and love, or I can choose to butt heads with the change that was ultimately always meant to occur outside of my control.
The choice is ours. Every day.
xx — Megan