constant craving

Change- to make or become different

Constant- unchangingly faithful or dependable over a period of time

-New Oxford American dictionary

“CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT”

My father spoke these sage words at the dinner table one night when I was a kid.

My brother and I exchanged a glance across the table and started laughing.  My father mimed a long beard and made a wise face—“Change is the only constant young warriors.  Now be well and eat your dinners”

It has always stuck with me.  We find ourselves living at a time in the world where you can’t count on anything.  There is no consistency in the weather, let alone the days of the week. Winters are warm and summers are cold.  We so desperately want to know what will happen tomorrow.  We drive ourselves crazy trying to predict the future and invest wisely.  All of our energy is put into looking ahead or looking back, obsessing over what could have been.  We make plans…only to have them dashed at the last moment by an unexpected circumstance.

Knowing that change is the consistency in the world, we can take the pressure off.  Life essentially is change.   Understanding that life requires us to be flexible, strong and adaptable all at once.  Ultimately, when you become inflexible and hold tight to life, it is like swimming against the current.  You must use all your strength just to go a short way.  It is our nature as human beings to look for routines or patterns in life and just slip ourselves into them, spending our lives coasting along.  But when the pattern changes unexpectedly, we become hardened.  We frantically search for what had become familiar–instead of embracing the new–and the possibility of something better.

Learning to expect change, and live in the present moment is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.

Embrace the unknown….crave the constant peaks and valleys.  Breathe deep.