The Patron Saint of Change

"Oh, I HATE change!" she said.

And she shook her head and she closed her eyes and shuddered again. "Hate it!"

"Really?" I said, "Because change sure loves you."

Change loves you. Look at how change is always present in your life, swirling around you and taking you in new directions. Change wants you to notice what's happening right now. Change points out the infinite possibilities in each new moment.

Change wants to keep you from dwelling in the past (which is a dream) and from fretting about the future (also a dream) and keep you right here, in the gift of the present moment.

And the present moment is our one big chance to create something new. Our ability to make something out of apparent nothingness is miraculous. But it is only possible thanks to change.

And change is so forgiving. If we miss our chance to change a minute ago, here change is again, fresh as ever. Sometimes change shows off with a fabulous sunset or a look from a stranger across a crowded room or a big, unmistakable transition like a birth or a death, but mostly change just dwells right here with us in each heartbeat.

Feel that? Each breath is change. Each meal, each step, each smile - we are ever-transforming. Things may feel the same, but it's an illusion, like gazing at a stream or a waterfall, which appears static but is actually nothing but movement.

So: with us all the time...located in the present moment...contains infinite possibilities...forgiving...eternal...generative, creative...omnipresent...

Change is not just good: change is God.

Let me say that another way --

Change is not just good: change is the presence of the Divine.

Now, I don't believe that the Divine cares how you feel about It. The Divine just keeps being the Divine whether you believe or don't believe, notice or don't notice, call It by one name or another name or don't call on It at all.

But I find my life goes more smoothly when I cooperate. And when I quit trying to have control over that which I clearly have no control. Much like arguing with gravity, hating change is rather a futile effort. Better, maybe, to allow the laws of gravity to support you, and to allow the laws of change to enlighten you and to reveal more love to you, so that you may be in closer relationship with the Divinity of every beautiful, fleeting moment.