Nothing lasts forever.
And many of us spend our entire lives coming to grips with that.
Look at the typical child. She'll get so involved in the enjoyment of a visit to a cousin's house that others can't help but smile from watching her. Until it's time to leave. Then watch how ugly that smiling child becomes. She'll plead to stay. Tears flow when you say no. Shouts of "I hate you!" might even follow if the visit was especially good.
Even if the next stop is the carnival, a kid can only see that she's having fun now and won't tolerate any change in that status - or allow for the chance that the next stop will be even better than the cousin's house.
She wants that situation to last forever.
As do adults.
Look at the man who sees his job in jeopardy. Perhaps his company has coasted, spending years without offering any new products, nor improving old ones, allowing an ever-improving newer company to surpass them. Or perhaps the man himself is the cause of his woes - refusing to learn the new technology that arrives more each day - leaving his skills far below those of the younger workers coming on. "No sir," he'll stubbornly say. "These skills have worked just fine for years, there's no use in changing them now."
Even adults want things to last forever.
Change will never change. It is always with us. What we do with it determines if our lives are ever-revitalized or a frustrating misery.
Embrace change and we'll look forward to learning new skills, spotting exciting new opportunities and getting a jump on the competition.
Resist change and we'll spend our lives in the frustrating, losing battle of trying to block a raging river with a Dixie cup.
Some call it noble to wade into the river and hold their ground against the white water called change. But who's smarter - the man who can identify the current and use its power to serve the best interests of all, or the man who stands stubbornly in its path fighting, until his drown body is washed up on some shore?
Change occurs in our bodies. It occurs in our relationships. It occurs in our occupations. It occurs in our communities.
Everything in life has its season. Change is not good or bad, it's merely change.
Horses used to be the entire country's mode of transportation. Yet cars wiped out that industry. Horse dealers might have seen the change as bad. But even they got to enjoy easier travel by car - and eventually would come to recognize it as good.
Embrace change and it will seem good.
Resist change and it will seem bad.
As in everything else, how we look at it, determines whether we have a good life or a bad life.
And until we come to grips with that, the results we see in our lives will never change.
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