During the past month so many changes have occurred in my life that I feel everything speeding up. This couldn’t be more different from the static quality of the past 16 months. I started me thinking about the meaning of change itself.
I know that philosophers have pondered this fact of life over centuries. I won’t try to capture the wisdom they offer. I favor the philosopher Heraclitus’ perceptions. He used the metaphor of a river to illustrate his concept of time. It is ever moving and changing. “One cannot step into the same river twice…”
I now think of change as one of the foundations of life itself. I found several quotes that express this perspective. Octavia E. Butler, a science fiction writer wrote, “All that you touch you Change. All that you Change changes you. The only lasting truth is Change.” Lindsay Baker, an associate editor at the BBC said, “How we handle change is the essence of our existence and the key to happiness, particularly in our current time of uncertainty.”
Granted, there are painful changes. And there are tragic changes. I am focusing on how to live our day-to-day life with a new and I believe helpful and hopeful point of view, as Lindsay Baker notes, the key to happiness.
For me, embracing the fact of constant change makes clear to me the things I can be responsible for, and those I have no control over. I then know what I will focus on, and what I will accept as is. I also find that my choice to open up to change also opens me to discovering new possibilities. It can be exhilarating to imagine a world moving around one, like a stream of energy and potential. This perspective supports my tendency to be an optimist, too. And also, I find that this perspective encourages me to live fully in the moment, because this moment will only exist now. Life lived fully and lovingly in the moment, is, I believe the key to happiness. And as we move out into more active and fluid lives with more change, fully embrace life.