Perhaps as today drew closer you wished that you had the ability to will Sunday to remain a little longer. That you stayed up a little later so as to remain in yesterday as long as possible. But now that Monday is here, you don’t mind it so much. The ability to make decisions and or alter our perspectives to improve our condition is that which makes it easier for us to sail through the seasons.

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We fear change because it removes familiarity which is in itself often a false sense of security.  It seems to me that nothing is as familiar as one thinks. To do differently than one is accustomed to is to be exposed to ones limitations and vulnerability; traits which we share with all living things and non-living things; something that we ought not be ashamed of but that we often are. I wonder why.

Habit is not that which we are but the acts we have repeated until they have become a second nature. Our habits are not always good which is why change is essential. Change is that which makes it possible to start shedding unhealthy ways for healthier ones. It takes self-awareness to know the things about us which we ought to give up, it takes a strong will, repetition, and patience to give up those behaviors and transform into that which makes our being a happier circumstance.

Sometimes we change without realizing it. I am not the same person I was at this time last year. The past twelve months have changed me. Some of my perspectives and behaviors have been altered due to influences by my associations with other minds and attitudes. These people did not change me. Their ways of doing and thinking influenced me to pick up some new habits. Some of these new habits I picked up because I felt them to be good and I am very proud of having acquired them, while some of them I picked up out of anger and fear or naiveté, and I am finding them to be jeopardizing to that which I aim to be.  There are also attitudes that I have picked up but I am not even yet aware of. All these new changes I am grateful for because they have and will enrich my life.

It is a myth that we can change people, hence it is a myth that we can change the world. We can however influence others, and through that influence propel others to make conscious or unconscious decisions to adopt certain ways. When we feel that someone is trying to change us, it is essential that we remember that no one can change us, it is only we ourselves who can change us; hence it is up to us to either adopt or refuse the attitudes that others believe to be best. To change does not necessarily mean to disassociate with our true selves, often it could mean to come closer to that self.  Change is natural, our nature. Even if we never lift a finger in life or think a single thought we still change just by existing, if in nothing else then in our bodies; for time moves us along until we vanish from its currents.

J