Change can be quick-Everything Changes

“In 10 seconds, everything changed. It was an apocalypse. There was blood everywhere.” –Elouan Preaud, who was having breakfast with his wife, Angelina Centeno, waiting to board a flight to Colombia when two blasts struck Brussels Airport.

I have a cork board mounted to the wall in front of my desk. Tacked to this board are; a picture of my kids when they were little, two of my favorite cartoons, maps of projects I am working on, a list of my favorite quotes, Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, the Dalai Lama’s 18 rules of life and these two words in big bold print “Everything Changes”.

It took a catastrophic event in my own life to make me realize that nothing is static. One incident and all my plans, hopes, many of my relationships and my career changed. At the time, I did not perceive this “adjustment” to be good. It was, without a doubt, life altering. In order to survive I had to create a new normal out of what had been my normal. Very quickly I learned a lot about myself. I understood, first-hand, the concept of perspective. I realized that there were only a handful of people who truly loved and cared about me, and fortunately they were enough to get me over the hump and help me survive.

“In 10 seconds, everything changed.”

If you are living your life as if nothing ever changes you are either a fool or you are not living your life with your eyes and your heart open. There is no way to prepare for every possible change, there is no way to predict it, there is only to accept it, accept that change is inevitable and when it happens hope that you have something firm to grasp be it family, faith or the sturdy branch of an oak tree and hold on until the storm passes….and it will pass.

“In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change lies our happiness and freedom.” – Buddha