Copyright © 2006 Bart Maguire via Flickr, cc Some rights reserved
Want to change your mind? Be grateful for something. Anything.
Today I’m grateful for the process. What process? Is it too lame to say any process? But specifically I’m grateful for the process of change—the time it takes to shift from one way of being, thinking, living to another.
Yes, I’m talking about Butterfly Soup.
I attended a conference over the weekend for those like me—a variety of people trying to work through the concerns life has given them as they forge their own path rather than walking the one others have made for them. It was enlightening and difficult. At the end of the evening I found myself talking with a man on the other side of all this crazy.
“What does it feel like?” I asked.
“Peaceful and free,” he said.
I expressed a desire to fast forward the painful parts right now. Can’t I just jump to the end? Wahoo! I’m changed. It’s over!
“No,” he said.
Don’t rush the process. Don’t force it. Because the process is what turns us into who we are. The pain, the agony, as well as the joy and the breakthroughs—all of it shapes us into more complete human beings if we allow it. Change can’t happen without the process.
Whether writing, parenting, living—whatever we do the process will teach us. We’ll make mistakes. We’ll fail. We’ll fall. It’ll hurt. But we’ll also succeed and overcome and rise to meet the next challenge. We’ll change and grow and, hopefully, be stronger people tomorrow than we were today and yesterday.
So yes, I am thankful for the process in every aspect of my life. I’m sure I’ll need a reminder in about five minutes, but, for now Universe, thank you.
Change can suck. What helps you move forward through the process?
photo credit (featured image): Copyright © 2010 Shannon Kringen via Flickr, cc Some rights reserved
