Embracing the Delta

If I could use just one word to describe my life in recent years, the only really obvious choice would be "change."  And I think that most people, in one area or another, can say the same.  As with many, many things, that got me to thinking.  What does change mean to me?

You hear a lot about people who don't like change.  I get that.  Sometimes it's hard to handle new things.  More rarely, you hear about people who love change.  But that got me to wondering, how do I feel about change?  I've never really thought about it before, because it just happens, whether I have feelings about it or not.

As I got to thinking, it reminded me of the last stanza of one of my favorite poems "Mutability" by Percy Shelley:

It is the same!—For, be it joy or sorrow,

    The path of its departure still is free;

Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;

    Nought may endure but Mutability.

I find that last line particularly meaningful "Nought may endure but Mutability."  Or more simply, the only constant is change.

If change is a constant in my life, how should I feel about it?  I began thinking of all the changes I've been through - work, life, family, friends, age - and really not much is similar about every change I've made.  

The one similarity though through most changes?  It's usually never easy.  I think one of the reasons people are resistant to change is that change takes effort.  If most changes were easy, the would be done already.  But just because something is difficult doesn't make it bad.

I finally decided,  given all I've taken in above, that I don't like or dislike change.  Don't get me wrong, there are changes that I've loved and those that made me miserable, but there's a distinction.  I realized that it's less constructive to have an opinion on change one way or the other.  Not that having one is bad for others, but for me it doesn't make sense.

See, I realized that having a feeling toward change, as an abstract idea, is too broad a stroke.  Change in the abstract is so vague and so without good or bad, that it should just be.  Rather, if I am going to have feelings about change, it should be in the context of each particular change, not change in general.

I think the problem that people have is they feel about change as either good or bad no matter the change.  But I think the importance of making meaningful changes, or at least coping with the ones that are made for you, is really evaluating the change in context, and judging it for what it is, not what you want or fear it to be.

As I mentioned earlier, most change is difficult, no matter how wonderful in the long run.  So, before making judgements on change, it's important to keep that in mind.  I know that as people we have trouble sometimes thinking beyond the here and now, but if we can make that effort, our future selves will be very thankful.

So, when it comes to change, you shouldn't ask yourself "do I like or dislike change" but rather "how do I feel about this change."  And think critically!  Is this the right change to fix my problem?  Will this change be better for me down the line? If I don't have control to prevent this change, can I help manage the results of the change?  If this is the wrong change, can I admit it and change again?  Can I embrace each new change with a fresh perspective?

I believe that if we each really make the effort to embrace change, and really engage it, that we can make great use of change.  It may take hard work, and we may stumble along the way, but it's better to steer the ship of change than to let the winds carry the ship where they will.