Everything Must Change

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakes ~ Carl Jung

 We measure the passing time in many ways, with religious festivals and national holidays, days of remembrance to commemorate historical events, personal anniversaries that mark relationships and birthdays and by revolutions of the earth in the course of its travels around the sun and through the vast cosmos of stars to create the days and the seasons. Some say we are living in the Age of Aquarius, a time characterised by a consolidation of power by those unconcerned with the true spirit of love. As we shift from the house of Aquarius into Pisces in this other indicator of the movement of time, I ask myself whether the changes we are witnessing today symbolize a grand shift in thinking, or simply more of the same.

Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

~ Abraham Lincoln

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
Gail Sheehy (author of the excellent ‘Passages’)

I’ve witnessed the countless festivals of various cultures in many nations, from the bizarre and somewhat frightening Good Friday celebrations in Granada, where widows carry candles in remembrance of the nights of mourning for the Christ. From Bayram sacrifices in Istanbul to Independence Day fireworks in America’s capital to Hogmanay in Scotland and the devilishly inspired Feast of Saint Antoni in Mallorca, Christmas in France, New Year’s Eve in Tunisia, Toronto, London or China, people light candles or lanterns to celebrate special days.

It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection ~ Voltaire

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

~ Leo Tolstoy

Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have. ~ Margaret Mead

All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.
~ Thomas Aquinas

We can be who we want to be in this brave new world of the global village, as ethnicity becomes a selective method of altering identity and technology insinuates its way into every aspect of our lives. Birthdays come and birthdays go but the process of change is inevitable and continual.

From our birthday, until we die, is but the winking of an eye.

~ William Butler Yeats

As I count the birthdays that have passed, I look forward to each coming day as a new experience of a wonderful life that has given me opportunities to live in the knowledge of a revolution of spirit that can transform this world in the twinkling of an eye. In a continuously changing humanity the ability to adapt is a positive trait that enables permanence of character when all around us is in chaos. I have learned that age is not only a chronological number and to be confused with the feelings one has about life; I feel younger today than I did several years ago, and that is about making life choices that make us happy and not notches on a calendar.

I thank my lucky stars, regardless of which cosmological or astrological sign they emanate from, to be blessed in the nature of being while I am yet becoming. Continuity and process are like reason and faith – they need each other to maintain the equilibrium of spirit.

Consider that it isn’t a single day or event that changes us, it is we who choose to make the changes everyday that improve life. So, despite the tribulations of this passing age, make a wish and blow out the birthday candles, look to the true light in a spirit of love, and in concert with one another we can try to ensure everything will change toward a brighter future .. for all people.

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