Starburst 1 by Peter Berry www.peterberry.us

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.  –Charles Dubois

With all that is going on in the world these days, it seems the one constant is change.  Of course, change has been happening since the beginning of…well, All That Is.  But it seems to be more intense now, with change happening on top of change happening on top of change.  People are afraid, sad, angry, anxious.  As a family that feels energy patterns and cycles deeply, we can feel the waves of movement that are occurring, even when it appears that nothing is going on….it is movement under the surface, in the depths of the collective psyche.

Change is in inherent in Nature…and we are part of nature.  All we need do is remember playing outdoors as children and feeling that first hint of fall in the air after a long, leisurely summer.  Was it a certain smell, or the way the light seemed to be sharper?  Was it the first leaf turning a slightly duller shade of green into yellow on the favorite tree?  Or was it a sense of inner knowing that the age old dance of cycles was at its work again?  We knew that something was changing, even before we had all of the science knowledge or the words in our heads…we could just feel it.

Change is the way nature works…and since everything is part of Nature (I challenge you to show me one thing that is outside of Nature, just as I would challenge you to show me one thing that is outside of God), everything changes.  We watch the seasons and come to expect those changes, even to look forward to them.  We watch as animals and land forms and weather patterns and plant life evolves over time on our planet, and expect that, too.  In the human realm, our minds change, our bodies change, our beliefs and emotions change, our circumstances change.   But these we don’t allow so gracefully as when we observe the changing of the leaves.  We somehow expect that we humans should be exempt from change, unless of course we consciously choose it.

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.  –Anais Nin

Since we are part of something much larger than ourselves (and thank goodness for that, I say), we are also part and parcel of the larger energy cycles that move through our universe, keeping the balance of order and chaos that invokes creation.  Since we are not separate from the molecules that make up the matter, and the intelligent energy that holds everything together, we are also not separate from the waves and tides that lap at the shores of all existence.  And since the universe is infinite and constantly expanding, the changing will never stop.  This means we are ALIVE.

Many of us are struggling with the changes that the last months have brought us; as a fellow human, I understand and empathize.  Our family has certainly been through its share of changes, too, and many of them quite challenging to deal with.   Perhaps I am fooling myself, but I believe that things change in order to bring a better order.  In other words, that what begs to be released from our lives is something that we no longer need, even perhaps is unsupportive for our soul-filled life.  Keeping this perspective helps me have a better attitude about changes; I feel that I am surfing the wave instead of being clobbered by it, being subsumed by it, a victim of it. 

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.  ~Author unknown, commonly misattributed to Charles Darwin

One of my favorite native teachings is of the Cheyenne way.  It’s said that if you have a cup of water, but the water is no good to drink, pour it out on the ground.  Seems pretty straight-forward, doesn’t it?  But many of us keep carrying that cup of dirty water around with us, whether it be a relationship that is hurting us, a job that is toxic, emotions that are unexpressed, beliefs that are limiting our life to a small fraction of what it could be.  The Cheyenne way is to unapologetically pour the bad water out on the ground.  There is no guilt in releasing what is not nourishing you anymore.  It’s bad water.  Just pour it out.

In the end, change is what runs through us like threads run through a tapestry….there is no escape from it.  I do believe change is the one constant.  And since there is no reprieve, we must choose how we will relate to change.  Will we resist and suffer, railing against the tidal wave, trying to hold it back?  Or will we let the cleansing storm take all the loose and unneeded cargo, and bravely lash ourselves to the helm and steer the best we can through the rushing waters, being our most alert and discerning selves, keeping our eye to the horizon line when we lose our faith?

In the end we can only keep moving forward, honoring all experience, blessing what we must let go of in our lives, and keep living. 

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.  –Alan Cohen