49. Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

 

Changes.  They are everywhere.  It seems that no one likes change,  unless you are talking about some nice change,  like a bonus at work, or winning the lottery.  But,  let’s face it,  changes usually involve something more along the lines of a health problem,  or maybe the transmission in your car goes out,  or some such extremely expensive thing.  Your significant other may move on without you,  you might lose your job, or something else similarly earth shattering happens.  Those are the changes we expect,  and receive with all too much regularity.  Sometimes those big changes that we hate the most,  end up being the best for us.  I have a friend who got divorced,  and while she had all kinds of mixed emotions about it at the time,  I think now, she would say it was the best thing she ever did,

But,  what if you try to embrace the change?  Can’t change be a good thing? Without change,  life would end.  Nature has it all figured out.  Nature embraces change,  or at the very least,  goes along with it,  as we all should.  What’s the point of going along kicking and screaming,  it’s going to happen anyway,  so you might as well find a way to accept it.  David Bowie had it figured out.  He said,  we should turn and face the strange.  Yes,  that’s right,  he said strange,  not change.  Aren’t changes all unusually strange at first?  Then,  as we begin to accept them and get used to them, we become okay with them.  Guess what happens next?  Yep,  another change!  Bam!  Over and over.  You would think we would get the hint after a while,  but we seem to be slow learners in general,  because we humans do everything we can to hold onto our traditions and stay in our patterns.   We do whatever we can to prevent change in our lives.

Changes.  Life might just go along a bit easier if we accepted change with a little more enthusiasm.  Nobody hates change more than someone with ALS.  Change for us usually means losing another muscle,  another ability gone down the drain.  But,  I try to go with the flow,  so to speak,  by coming up with some of my own changes.  I might do something,  like move all my furniture around,  or take a month-long vacation,  or something,  anything to shake things up a bit.  It won’t stop the changes I don’t want to happen,  but it might make it easier to accept change.  I know, it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things,  but,  it’s a change.  What can you do to experience change on your own terms?  Try a new food?  Try a new hair style.  Learn a new language,  and then visit a country where they speak that language.  Switch jobs.  Do something different, anything different.  Start small,  and work your way up to the big changes.  Face the strange, and accept the changes.