Change

A lot has been written and said about change. Some people claim and proclaim how they are agents of change and how they have embraced change. Often, people are urged to get out of their comfort zones, to leave their shells.

I would like to believe that many of us, even those who preach the gospel of change in one way or another, actually fear change and hide behind the rhetoric, the words, in an attempt to shield ourselves from the very change we so advocate.

People change. It is indeed one thing that is constant in this world. We change as our environment changes. So much around us influence our lives. It may be our families, our loved ones, the people we choose to live with. It can be our co-workers, the people we mingle with, acquaintances, or even those we encounter for fleeting moments in our daily journeys.

We are often uncomfortable with the fact that those around us are changing, or have changed. We like to look and analyze and criticize how others have changed when all we are doing is denying ourselves of accepting that process, and realizing that we ourselves are changing, albeit at a pace that we choose and set in our minds. We have the tendency to observe and critique what's happening to those around us when we have failed to see our own transformations. And therein lies the problem - a dilemma that poses a challenge to how we engage the realities of life.

The real issue might not really be about change but of control. We might really be fearing the loss of control and not change itself. I would like to believe that we all want to have control, to take control, but in varying degrees and maybe under different circumstances. The frustration over loss of control in one area is manifested in our attempt to control those that we perceive we can. Often the problem here is the struggle for control overlaps or coincides with the attempts of others to have similar control.

At this point I will choose not to offer any solutions. I, too, am trying to understand, to comprehend how those around me, including myself, are coping with change. I, too, am looking inwards and seeking how I have, am and will assert what I perceive as the control that I would need to bring order to my environment while pondering on the influence I will have to those around me. I can only hope everyday that everything will eventually come out right and that I can achieve peace of mind and heart.