Change is not made without inconvenience. - Richard Hooker
There is a certain comfort found within the confines of the status quo, seductive, potentially addictive, so much so, that not unlike the fly becoming prey to the Dionaea muscipula (Venus fly-trap); enticement and snare are one and the same.
The rewards for change though often vast, frequently are accompanied by significant inconvenience and discomfort. Too much change all at once can be entirely destabilizing and chaotic, while excessive chaos can itself be disruptive to any lasting serenity, counter-productive and self-defeating.
Is it any wonder resistance to change so very often, can lay to waste: dreams, aspirations, goals even choices that would clearly be in one's "better interest."
"Better the devil you know.." speaks volumes to a rationalization to remaining - Unchanged! But is it really? People will move to the other side of the continent to "escape" their family - but shoot themselves in the foot again and again to cling to the "familiar."
My most recent grappling with this conundrum is encompassed in the present reality, that my recent decision to recommit to my writing - which could be seen as newly courting "creativity," finds me sitting bolt upright at 3:45 a.m. (which was half an hour ago) unable to return to the obviously more comfortable embrace of sleep - I'm led to conclude it preferable to stare-down the blank page that is to contain this next blog post.
Growth, change, healing, personal evolution all have in common, that they are often found just beyond the bounds of comfort. Though it might be "human-nature" to seek the easier, softer way the soul cares not for anybody's convenience!
Exercise = Sweaty, uncomfortable & just plain inconvenient - but there is a high cost extracted for choosing to neglect it.
Challenging conversations, toxic relationships, dead-end jobs, a measure of comfort can certainly be found even adamantly fought for in each, still what is the trade-off for avoidance?
To be clear abject suffering is not be advocated for here, but one certainly might need to muster some personal aversion to comfort which has exceeded its "best before date," and develop some tolerance for inconvenience and discomfort.
I can't tell you when change is due, other than to reference for all things comes a season. Having said that, even though I acknowledge, to force change prematurely can be ill-advised; while laying a ground-work to bridge a given situation can be optimal - often no amount of preparation can take away from the need to just make the leap.
Four forty four - what in God's name am I doing bearing witness to that time of the morning? I feel and hear the winds of change directing me to respond to their inevitable mandate - is my answer.
"One never crosses the same river twice"
"Time wait for no one (no man)...."
"Nothing changes ... if nothing changes..."
"The only constant is change."
"Be the change...."
"Resistance is futile..."
Personally, I have languished through procrastination, made an encampment of the decision of indecision, held fast to resistance even as it take me down for the last time - so I know what can be at stake when the need to "Let Go" may be ringing out loud and clear...
For just such occasions I continue to pray:
"God grant me the Serenity
To Accept the Things I Cannot Change
Courage to Change the Things I Can
And the Wisdom To Know the Difference.
R. O'Neill (September 17, 2020)
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