Looking Up Change Once Again

Change:  To become something different; to replace; to make something into something else.

I've looked up this definition many times and I'm always impressed with the beautiful simplicity of the meaning.  For a thing to become a new, different thing.  It can be applied to anything: a behavior or an attitude or a belief.  I believed this thing and now I believe something different - how in the world can you improve that sentiment?  I believed I had to drink or God was a joke or I couldn't do this or I had to do that and I found out - after I embraced some change - that a lot of it was bullshit.  I was wrong, mistaken, fooled, uninformed, so I replaced what I was and now I'm different.  Whether the new, different me is better is open to interpretation, of course.  The trick is to become something better but even that's not so important because sometimes a step backwards leads to a big jump forward.

 I need to remind myself that change doesn't have to be a constant.  It doesn't have to be relentless and pointless, change for the sake of change, restless movement away from something whenever I feel some momentary discomfort or boredom.  I don't want to overwhelm myself with change because I toss out some good stuff from time to time.  I'm not talking about chaotic change which would be an excellent name for a hard rock band.

The CoVid pandemic has forced a lot of change on everyone and a lot of the change has been inconvenient at best, destructive at worst.  People have sickened and died, jobs have been lost, bank accounts drained.  I get it that a lot of us want things to "go back to where they used to be,"  whatever that means, exactly.  I'd like for my gray hair to be black and my belly to be taut, too, but I've adapted.  I think that living in 7 different states and traveling all over the place has made me pretty adaptable to change and not everybody has had these experiences or possesses the means to make them happen.  I'm fortunate.   Not all of these changes worked out wonderfully, either.  Some of them were stressful or painful or blew up in my face, but they sure compelled me to adapt, to find the positive instead of focusing on the negative, which has made me very flexible.   When my tendency is to bitch and moan I can usually step back and work on my perspective.  Go with the flow.

As an extremist with a poor sense of the middle ground, a balance-denier, I tend to use words like never and always and forever.  This funny Program bounces me back and forth between One Day At A Time - staying in the moment - and The Long View - trying to get a feel for the Big Picture instead of focusing on my momentary discomfort or irritation.