This week’s photo challenge asks us to post an image that represents change.

I feel the desire to take this one step further, however.

Change is an important word in my lexicon, so revealed to you, today, is my deeply philosophical side.

(This is a change. 😉 …)

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A long time ago, almost another life time, in fact, a young man I was kind of dating said to me:

“I’m never going to change.”

Even in my tender youth I knew deep down this was a ridiculous statement. My view of him changed from that moment on and, shortly thereafter, “we” were history.

Everything changes every day; every hour; every minute; every second. Every thing we do, see, touch, taste, smell, for better or worse, changes in a moment. With each breath something changes. We are change.

If we don’t accept that things change, we become an obstacle in the flow of life. We become stuck while change swirls around us, gradually eroding (and changing) us into someone we eventually no longer recognize; until, one day, our lives having passed us by, we’re left standing in our own swell wondering what the heck happened and where we went wrong.

To make the most of life we need to be mutable, adaptable, changeable so we can grow, evolve and discover our  own truth.

People who fight change get stuck in old ways, old patterns of behaviour, old limiting beliefs. They do the same things over and over expecting different results. Isn’t that a definition of insanity?

They harbour bitterness, anger, resentment, pain because they don’t believe that, or don’t care if, change is possible.

They are content to be unhappy while wallowing in their murky rut. It’s what they know. It’s where they feel comfortable, even as they claim to hate it.

Unhappy people make the rest of us pay for their misery.

I know … I’ve been exposed to them and … I was one.

For years I was afraid to change and, frankly, I didn’t know that it was possible. I thought that what was, was all there was. I gravitated to the hell of doubt because that’s what I knew, and wore myself out with the worry of it.

A series of wake-up calls … death, divorce, a floundering career, a week in Sarajevo … told me each in their own way and time I was ripe for change.

A death in the family almost 20 years ago told me to live my dreams.

My divorce 14 years ago told me to let go of the past, find my truth and embrace a new future.

Dissolution of a career in public relations eight years ago told me to find my own voice.

An anxiety-ridden week in Sarajevo four years ago told me to find a good therapist who could help me put the pieces of my life back together.

Listening to these calls to action and rising to the challenge has changed me in profound ways.

I have been that miserable person stuck in the vortex of her own resistance, believing that there was nothing I could do to find my truth and crawl out of the shadow of others’ pain.

I have been to hell and back to reclaim the lost pieces of my self, and watched my evolution to wholeness with an aspect of awe.

Now I’m realizing what I once thought impossible. … a happy life.

Change is my friend. My ally. My saviour.

What does change mean to you?

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The featured image was taken at one of my favourite haunts in Calgary … Heritage Park — where prairie history is brought to life.

I love to engage with the past this way. It helps me to appreciate my roots and the advantages we enjoy in these modern times.

Of course, times have changed.

I remember learning to type on both a manual and electric typewriter — in triplicate with carbon paper and white out, if we dared to use it. How much more convenient is the computer even if it has removed some of the romance of the writing process. Just think though, if there had been no evolution from the typewriter, I wouldn’t be tapping out these words on my laptop and you wouldn’t be reading them via cyberspace. 😉

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Finally, when it comes to changing and personal growth I believe there’s nothing quite as satisfying as being able to say, with kindness and a grateful heart, “that was then.”

Be well and thanks for visiting …

Dorothy 🙂

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Shout Outs

Pilot Fish

Life and Ink

The Sacred Cave

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Copyright Aimwell CreativeWorks 2013