“The Only Constant Is Change”

I have been thinking about change a lot recently—how we humans are so resistant to it and find ourselves dreading it, approaching it white knuckled, tense and negative. What is it about change that strikes so much fear into our hearts?

What would happen if we accepted change as a natural progression of life? What if instead of it being something that we dread—we hope for? What if change reminds us that God is still very much at work and on the move in this world? What if change is the gift that allows our lives to flourish and to be so full of life?

Perhaps, it would be still be something that is frightening but the negative connotation could be dropped. I think change framed in this way feels a heck of a lot like freedom. Freedom to embrace each moment as it comes to me, freedom to be myself in my body, right here, right now in this precise moment—because that is really all there is.

These ramblings have me believing that 1) therapy is working and 2)so is my mediation app 3)wow, what a gift!

As I picked the images above, documenting the week life span of my cut peonies (remember they have lived through so many changes in their life before they even came to me), I thought about the changes in my own self, in my own life, my physical and emotional changes. Perhaps change is really beautiful and God’s work can be seen in it and through it all.

The title of today’s post comes from the teabag that started it all— Yogi tea has this lovely tradition of adding messages to their tea bag. I have now had the pleasure of drinking several teas by them with this little message delivered to me “the only constant is change.” It has been paired with and reinforced by the messages I receive from my headspace app. I have received them so much, I have finally just begun regurgitating as a message of comfort, that literally the only thing that is same in life is, change. I am allowing the message to wrap itself around my life, like a warm fuzzy blanket—familiar, trustworthy, and comforting.

The only constant in this precious life is change. It can be a tough pill to swallow, especially when we like how things are—but think about all the gifts of life that change brings to us. Look for God in the change—I promise you will find the Spirit in the midst of the dance!

Water so easily changes to become tea.

Strangers become loved ones.

A friend becomes a lover.

The seasons bleed into something new—ushering into this world heat where it once was cold, coolness where heat and humidity had been suffocating, greenness where bleak grayness was, orange and red replace vibrant green, brown turns to snow white. All to loop back around again and again—breathing new life, inviting us into a new rhythm, with each turn of the tide.

Power shifts, disrupts, and more people are awoken to their soul’s true path.

Tension snakes around a body, nearly causing collapse until it transforms to acceptance—an openness begins and a path is suddenly seen.

Happiness becomes sadness, sadness becomes happiness.

Pain is present to transform to healing.

Heartbreak devastates a life—opening the way for new friendships to come, to be fostered, so that love is still always present.

Babies grow from the size of little beans, to a baby out in the world, to toddlers, to small children, to big children, to teenagers, to young adults, to adults, to the elderly.

Seeds become trees, flowers, grass.

Parents become grandparents, grandparents become great-grandparents.

The water turned to wine.

God changes God’s mind.

The ordinary becomes the holy.

The change in how I feel before and after yoga.

People leave places, for whatever reasons and new gifts come into the place left vacant. They breathe new life into it and the one who left goes somewhere new to use their gifts to breathe new life into another place they find themselves in.

The growth that comes from hard work.

The change you highlight in how you used to respond to things to how you now respond to them.

Change is everywhere all the time.

You realize that thing that was so scary a while ago is no longer scary—you have learned new skills.

Change is how growth happens and it is how healing happens.

God is love and love transforms us—transformation is change.

A caterpillar becomes a butterfly.

A cut peony that began as a tight little bud, opens its hot pink petals like a fan, slowly as they come closer to the end of their life their color fades, light pink, to white. They smell different throughout their life cycle, trying to attract last pollinators before they life comes to a close, so they might live on.

What a gift to watch the life transition of a beautiful flower and to rejoice and savor it all.

Maybe all the magic we crave so deeply can be found in the change we resist so greatly.

Perhaps the pain that change often inflicts can be transformed into something new. Something that does not replace what was lost but life brought from something gone.

In this season, I am choosing to take heart and hope in all the beauty and healing that change is bringing.

Here I am, greeting this day, this constant thing as an old friend, arms open wide, with excitement on my mind!