My mornings tend to start pretty much the same way every day. The time they start will vary, not the routine. Put on coffee to brew, feed the cats and then sit down at the computer. You’d think I was a creature of habit, wouldn’t you?
It’s actually the cats who are the creatures of habit and it’s just easier for me to accommodate than deal with their antics when I don’t follow that routine. Change, even small change, upsets their sense of balance and order. It throws them for a loop and they become unhappy. I have two cats, a tom and a queen. The tom is more inclined to adapt to change than the queen.
If I don’t get up soon enough for their sense of need, they pester relentlessly. The tom cat gets fed near my computer. If I move away from the computer for any more than a minute or two, he will leave his food and pester until I return so he can finish eating.
People aren’t much different when it comes to change. We know at an intellectual level that change is normal and necessary for growth, personal and communal. We even crave change at times. Then when it happens, our emotions kick in and fear starts to claw away at us, leaving us wanting to grab the familiar and hold on for dear life.
I find it with myself. I know at an intellectual level there are changes that I want to make, in some cases, need to make. Yet, all too often my emotional level just kicks away the wisdom of my intellect and hangs on to the familiar.
I can almost hear the battle cry.. “Hey, you think you’re in charge? Watch this! She’s going to keep on doing what she’s doing and you can’t make her.” There is a lot of truth to that statement. The mind and willpower can only effect so much change. If the emotions don’t start to embrace those changes, even a little bit, then change wont happen. Or wont be lasting.
It gets really interesting when there is a desire for change but no vision behind it. People get restless with the status quo and want change. That comes from the emotional level but if they can’t engage their intellect to put a shape to the change, it becomes a yearning that can scatter in many directions.
I had a conversation not many years back with a friend. She’s a very intelligent and insightful person most of the time but this conversation left me scratching my head for answers. All I got was a splinter or two.
We were discussing a tone that had crept into an organization we’re both part of. Her take was that people wanted change. So I asked what change would they like? Her answer was “things have to change”, “we have to do things differently”. I asked what things and different in what way?
She just kept repeating her first comments and grew frustrated that I just couldn’t see what she was saying. What I saw was a yearning without form. There was an emotional desire but that hadn’t been thought through in order to put form to the desire.
Yes, change can be a wonderful, terrifying time. It can lead to great times in life. If it actually takes form in order to be embraced.
Until Next Time — Just Steem on
