It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. ~W. Edwards Deming

Sometimes I look in the mirror and I can't recognize the face staring back at me. I don't look the same as I did five, ten, or fifteen  years ago, because I am not. Whether I'm better or worse is not the point...I'm different. I'm reminded of the saying, "People around you are a reflection of yourself" and I begin to wonder if this unfamiliar reflection is actually my former self, who I no longer recognize, being reflected by people who knew her back then. I've changed, but some of those people seem unchanged to me, and I end up in a sort of tug of war resisting being pulled back in time.


It's not that I think I'm better or worse than these folks from my youth, but I am different. I don't think, feel, or behave the same as I used to, and it often causes conflict within these relationships. Some people seem resistant to change, especially when it occurs in the people around them. Though many spend inordinate amounts of time and money changing their physical appearances, changes of mind, heart, or spirits seem blasphemous to them. John Kenneth Galbraith said, "Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof." This is something I encounter often with these reflectors of my former self.


In this day and age, the earth, it's inhabitants, and their rulers are showing us that change is necessary for survival. We can no longer mistreat the earth and expect her to continue to yield life giving goodness. We can't continue to mistreat or ignore one another because we are all vital links in the chain of life. It is not true that if nothing changes it stays the same because everything is constantly changing, even if the changes are unobservable to the human eye. If you still eat the same way at 35 as you did at 25, you will not remain the same. Your body is continually changing, and so is the food you're eating. So don't be surprised if you gain weight or health problems.


So, I am now brought to the saying, "If you can't change the people around you, change the people you're around." This is especially difficult when you still love and care about those people. I'm at a crossroads because I don't necessarily want to change the people around me except the way the interact with me. But I also don't want to go backwards in order to keep them around me either. As Harold Wilson said, "He who rejects change is the architect of decay.  The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery." Even a corpse progresses to dust. Peace and blessings.