Living in Change

Just at present my thoughts are focusing intensely on the subject of change. Whether it is change which we see or change that simply happens, the subject of how we deal with change is one of great importance to our personal health and wellbeing. It can give us a great infusion of new energy or it can sap us by forcing us into the mindset that there was a better time in the past or there will be a better time in the future.

I have been thinking about change because I have a parent who is in a dying process. Fear and deep sadness are the immediate bugbears that present themselves with such an imminent change. My mind looks down into the hole of how life will be without my parent and my energy drains away through it with my projections. Our society forces us to think ahead about the consequences of change by its need, often long in advance, for bookings and purchases in advance of major events signifying change.

On the other hand, I have at the same time been writing to my family on each day; nothing spectacular, just the happenings of the day. Yet this moment is very important to me because when I am in it at the end of each day, I do not make projections, rather I live in the change and simply share what has been happening on that day with my family and dying parent who are so far away. We communicate with one another about what is happening today and find new energy in this.

The great paradox about change is that in order to do it well and benefit from it, you must live in the moment rather than constantly look forward at how life will be after the change. Whatever change is happening to you or that you are making, it is about a shift in identity; who you are. Figuring out who the new you is, is the work of change which is finally about consciousness on this day at this moment.