Life is change

Heard it before and thought: yes, it can be, but I find it difficult. I do not like it. And the past two years in particular have been characterized by constant changes in our familiar life.

Change means getting involved in the new, the unknown, and some of us don’t like that at all. I think it’s our thoughts, our wonderful analytical brain, that don’t like change. It tries to protect us, to ensure our survival. To do this, it automatically calculates everything, compares, evaluates and comes to results. Every new step seems to be a risk and needs to be carefully considered. The familiar seems certain. It should stay that way.

When we look at nature and everything in the world that works without our intervention, change is the constant. Each day starts new and different from the previous one, plants grow or wither and come back in spring. Everything is constantly changing. We are different today than yesterday and tomorrow. Nature does not seem to be afraid of change. There is a plan stored in the plants and animals that they follow. They are prepared for their daily activities.

And we? We too are equipped for life and everything that it brings. Does that sound idealistic and not realistic at all? Yes, a lot happens every day and a lot of it gives the impression that it is not manageable. Too much, too terrible, too powerful. And yet we seem to have a place within us from which we can always get up. There is no other way of explaining that we continue to live, that joy comes back and that we find new meaning and vitality. We are part of this world and connected to it. As in nature, renewal happens in us every day.

Everything is human experience and we humans are built for it. Sydney Banks put it aptly:

“If the only thing, people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world” Sydney Banks

Translated into German:

“If people learned only one thing and that was not to be afraid of their own experience – that alone would change the world,” Sydney Banks

If we feel that deep within us that nothing can happen to us, then we can simply allow life and change.