Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.

How true is that...really!?  So many of us want to change things about ourselves, our habits and our lives but yet we choose to sit and bitch.  Bitching about the things we wish were different won't change anything.  It is what it is.  Unless you, yourself, take the necessary steps to change the things you do not like then they will remain the way they are. 

I, regrettably, am one of those people and have recently learned that stewing about the things that upset me and not making a change has hindered the rest of my life in many different ways.  Not embracing change as a fact of life and rolling with it's punches has not allowed me to live my life to the fullest and get the things I need and want.  So I bitched about it and stewed about it and kept it all inside and didn't change it.

It's sad really that so many people waist so much time thinking about what they want to do in their lives instead of just doing it.  Is it because some of us are afraid to fail or are afraid that we may not get the results we wanted?  I don't know and I'm sure that answer is different for each individual person. 

But what I've learned, like it or not, CHANGE is inevitable.  You can't avoid it.  Sooner or later it will catch up to you and the longer you avoid it the bigger it gets.  In my opinion, more frequent smaller changes are better than one big one (unless the change is a big change on it's own).  I am not learning this and it is a painful lesson learned. 

Without change some things would die.  Without change ideas would never flourish.  Without change people would never meet, families would never begin and lives wouldn't be born.  Without change we are left with a bunch of boring and easy decisions that would lead to our ultimate demise.  Change is essential in all our lives to live lives that are not without purpose.  But it is our own responsibilities to face change with courage, grab it as tight as we can and embrace it. 

Changes may not always be easy but it's what builds our character; it makes us who we are.  I have accepted that change has sought me out, settled in and announced that it is not budging until I choose to take it by the hand and move forward.  I have begun to move forward and with each step my smile and laugh strengthens.  With each step I grow a little stronger.  With each step...happier. 

I will leave you with the words of Blind Melon, the song Change...

I don't feel the suns comin' out today
its staying in, its gonna find another way.
As I sit here in this misery, I don't
think I'll ever see the sun from here.

And oh as I fade away,
they'll all look at me and say, and they'll say,
Hey look at him! I'll never live that way.
But that's okay
they're just afraid to change.

When you feel your life ain't worth living
you've got to stand up and
take a look around you then a look way up to the sky.
And when your deepest thoughts are broken,
keep on dreaming boy, cause when you stop dreamin' it's time to die.

And as we all play parts of tomorrow,
some ways will work and other ways we'll play.
But I know we all can't stay here forever,
so I want to write my words on the face of today.
and then they'll paint it

And oh as I fade away,
they'll all look at me and they'll say,
Hey look at him and where he is these days.
When life is hard, you have to change.