Every moment we are creating our lives. If we are focused on what happened yesterday or last year, how are we ever able to move forward? To grow, to find happiness, or to find love. Isn’t that what we all striving for and needing in our lives? Can we learn how to embrace change?
We have to experience life and in the experiencing there will be discomfort and pain. We have to shift our thinking about the pain and realize it is an opportunity to learn, to grow, to change, in order to find something deeper within ourselves. We need to experience the pain, but not allow it to become our identity because that’s where suffering comes in.
I just watched the movie Boyhood, and there’s a scene where Patricia Arquette’s son is getting ready to go to college and she starts crying. She’s thinking about her life, and how she struggled to raise two kids, had two failed marriages, her kids are leaving her and she says, “And now what? I’m going to die!”
I can only image how difficult it is to see your kids go off to college. But change is inevitable. Everyday we wake up and we are changing whether we want the change to happen or not. In this movie Patricia Arquette was struggling with the fact that there is going to be change and she didn’t know what was next for her.
How many of us can relate to this situation? Our reality is changing right in front of us, and we are mad, crying, not wanting it to change, but guess what – change is going to happen. As much as we want to be able to control things, people, and our surroundings, change is inevitable whether we want it or not.
How do we learn to embrace the challenge that is in front of us? In order to grow, we must start with realizing that no matter what we do or say, this situation will be changing. Embrace it. Welcome it in. My teacher Richard Miller would say, “Invite it in for tea and ask what it wants of you.”
Learn to embrace your life and all the challenges, be thankful for your past and all it’s wisdom that it has brought you; the lessons learned. Embrace the changes that will inevitably come and hopefully we can learn to experience life without the suffering.
With Gratitude,
