These days when I hear the word, change, I almost want to run and hide. Actually sometimes I do; I hang out in a favorite old book…not too serious…and enjoy familiar words for a while. But change is always there to meet me when my nose comes up for air. Bombs, bullets and ballistics crown the headlines; the newest technologies fill advertisement space; people die without our permission, and the thing I felt sure about yesterday may not greet me with today’s dawn.
Has it really come to this?...
I don’t resist change. That would be foolish. I would just like it to be a little more measured, a little more moderate. I would rather see a house remodeled than demolished by a gigantic earth mover gouging it to pieces. Charles Darwin once wrote that “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent…It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Has it really come to this? Does our species survival or simply our own integral sense of self depend on how much we embrace change and how little we resist it? Perhaps.
The recognition that love heals...
I would like to think, though, that there are certain obvious spiritual qualities that can persist through all the shuffling of forms: The recognition that love heals, that kindness attracts and does not repel, that times of calm contemplation still bring out inner wisdoms more than fiddling with the newest gadget.
More than a quarter-inch thick...
Change is necessary to keep up and also to advance, no doubt, but bypassing the grand strokes that the past has taught is a waste of the foundations on which we stand. If we are to be more than a quarter-inch thick in spiritual integrity, we should remember that we contain great depths as well as surface brilliance.
The newest door down a long haul...
Change, yes, but along with the remembrance that it is just the newest door down a long hall of experiences and honed perceptions.
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