Why Change Is All The Things

In my experience, change can be good or bad, welcome or hard, but it's nearly always out of my control.

When things are going well, I forget this. I'm like a dog with a bone: grrrrr - don’t take this away! When things go sideways, I forget too. I can’t wait for things to shift or I’m pushing for them to shift, sometimes pushing hard. Forgetting that change is nearly always out of my control brings subtle (or not-so-subtle) stress.

But there’s another option: remembering. When I remember that the bone will disappear one way or another (not even the best bone lasts forever), that the sideways moment will right itself somehow, that everything changes and there’s usually nothing I can do about it, then, paradoxically, there's a pause. Sometimes there's even an “ah ha.” In that pause, that “ah ha” - in that rare but delicious moment of remembering - I don’t feel so protective of the bone, or so trapped by the tilt. I can relax.