Transitioning from there to here can take a minute.
So as you move into this space,
Take a deep breath in.
Exhale through an open mouth.
Inhale,
Lifting your shoulders up by your ears.
Exhale,
Settle down and in.
Welcome to a hit of hope,
And this one is a wee bit salty.
I've been thinking about change a great deal lately.
I'm considering making some changes in my life and after reaching out to wise friends to get their advice,
I've learned a few things.
First,
And most frustratingly perhaps,
I've realized that there is no clear answer about which direction I should go.
There are benefits and drawbacks with each option.
Well duh,
Betsy,
That's almost always the case.
Inhale,
Exhale.
But here are some other things I've learned.
Change can mean to substitute one thing for another.
So I choose narwhals instead of unicorns when I think of delightfully mono-horned creatures.
Change can also mean to replace with something new or better.
This might mean choosing meditation at the end of the day instead of picking up the remote control.
Or a walk in the woods instead of doom scrolling.
These kinds of changes can be amazing.
At the same time,
Maybe I'm not the only one tempted to flash my middle finger at this definition.
Have any of you felt like you've been replaced with something new and better and it hurts like hell?
I have.
Inhale,
Exhale.
What becomes obvious as I consider change is the following.
First,
Change happens.
If things are not changing in your life,
You are dead.
Seriously.
Inhale,
This breath in is different than your last one.
Exhale out,
This release is different from every single exhalation that has come before or will come after.
Change happens.
Something else,
There are times when we have no control over the change in our lives.
A diagnosis,
A job loss,
Someone else decides something and our lives are the ones that get upended.
So change happens and sometimes we cannot control it at all.
But we can be in charge of how we deal with and feel about the change.
We can go all snow globe and get whirly swirly inside.
We can feel blinded,
Trapped,
Pounding pointlessly against the glass.
But we are not inside a glass.
So take a deep inhale and let it out.
We can also settle and meet the change from a sense of calm,
From this sense of centered self.
There's something else.
Sometimes we really are completely in control of change.
And we seek change as a way of escape.
As I was considering the changes in my life,
A wise friend asked me if I was considering them to avoid doing something.
Was I not wanting to do the work that needed to be done?
So change wasn't a good thing.
It was an avoidance tactic.
Great question.
But how then do we know if change is something fresh and new and good or if it's a spiritual bypass?
I'd suggest by taking an eagle's view.
We fly up and away to get a nice big view of things.
And yet we bring our piercing and penetrating gaze to the situation.
We see widely and clearly.
We weigh our options honestly.
And then we go after our choice with grace and strength.
Inhale.
Exhale.
To finish,
Another friend offered me this nugget of wisdom.
He used the word incremental.
So rather than having change be huge,
Think of it in increments,
Small choices that add up.
He told me about a man who bought a brick house,
Except the brick had been painted white.
The man preferred a natural brick.
So each day he would go out and carefully remove three or four bricks and turn them around.
Then he would cement them into place so they were steady,
Sturdy.
He didn't try and do the whole house at once.
It was one brick at a time.
Inhale.
Exhale.
As you transition from here back to there again.
As you consider change.
Feel grounded.
Steady.
Ready.
To live light.
