There is stability in change. When seasons change, there is still stability. Flowers bloom, and flowers fade. The sun shines brightly, and you swim on the lake. The winds blow cold, and you skate on the lake. Through it all, there is a beautiful permanence.
If the seasons did not change, the permanence would not be greater.
You rake leaves. You shovel snow. You put summer clothes away. You take out boots and mittens. The changing seasons are not upheaval. They are just change.
And so with your life. The changing seasons do not have to be upheaval. They are merely changes. Childhood flies away. Hair grows gray. Husbands and wives come and go. Death of the body consumes your loved ones, and one day your body takes its turn. Permanence is still permanence. Stability has not gone.
Changes in relative life, like the seasons, are to be expected. Changes are not fatal. They are merely changes.
Must you turn over every change like a jeweler a diamond? Must you examine every nook and cranny of change and exhume it? Autopsy it? Let the body of change lie where it is.
That life changes is permanent, beloveds. Do not mind it. Breathe it in, and breathe it out. It is a guest who stays for only a short while. Change does not wreak havoc. It is a small thing that you make big, as if it were once in a lifetime, as if change were not the subject of life, or as if change were an imposition, something in your way. Rather, change paves your way, beloveds.
Change is like the set director of a play. He gets the stage ready for you. Or like the costume designer who gives you new outfits to wear depending upon what act you’re in. Must you be overpowered by change?
Start welcoming change. Consider it as something good that comes to you. Desired or not, it has arrived. The guest, wanted or unwanted, has come. Make a bed on the couch. This guest of change won’t stay long.
Change stretches you, beloveds. You are supposed to be stretched. You are not to stay so comfortable. Perhaps the world has made comfort its ideal. But that is fantasy. Change will disrupt comfort. Comfort is not meant to stay. Yes, meanwhile, put your feet up and relax. You will have to get up soon enough.
Will you learn to relax even through change? Does it really have to be momentous or tragic or a wall to butt your head against? Will you develop a more friendly feeling toward change? Will you embrace it? It may not have been your idea, but change has found its way to you. It has come like a UPS delivery. You have to open the package to know what is inside. Sometimes the gift within is wrapped in many layers of tissue paper. Sometimes you throw the wrappings out too soon, and haven’t seen everything that was in the package for you.
Anyway, another package will find its way to you.
Are you sad at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace?
Accept the winds that blow, beloveds. Remember the willow tree and the oak, and which is mightier.
When you play baseball, you don’t win every game. Beloveds, when you lose, what have you lost? You have only lost that which is not lasting anyway.
You are on your way to the rainbow. You have to keep walking. Whatever twists and turns, you have to keep walking. That is the case, would you agree? Since this is so, keep walking with alacrity. Why frown, stamp your foot, pound your pillow? All you have to do is keep walking. Be a good sport, beloveds. Don’t be down in the mouth. Put your shoulders back, and hold your head high. You are merely walking through change. You will get to the rainbow. Just keep walking. Keep looking where you are going, and soon enough, you will have traversed the miles of the universe.