ChA-Cha-Changes
Mike Ditka the dog, all of his favorite plushies, and I roll down the road
Heraclitus is credited with saying, “No man steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he is not the same man.”
Personally, I love this quote I think about it often. In fact the cells that make us up are continuing shedding and being replaced. With very few exceptions we are made up different cells than we were just about seven eight years ago. Though we seldom recognize it we are constantly changing. Those old memories that we hold on to so tightly were the experiences of a person made up of almost entirely different stuff than we are now. We constantly change and it isn’t all just biological.
Every day small things happen. Some days big things. We cannot help to respond to these things when they do. Our response can make big things small things and small things big things. Our experience and the anticipation can lead us to actually planning for or even acting upon things we only thought could happen. All of these things, the small things, the big things, the small things we made big things, the big things we made small things, the possible things we made real things, they all change us.
We simply cannot avoid change— no matter how much we may want too!
As a kid developed a habit of laying out a new shirt, new pair of pants, or even new kicks somewhere that I could see from where I slept. This way I woke up and went to sleep looking at the new apparel. After a week or two, I would finally be ready to put on the new clothes and wear them out. Despite how much I try to embrace change and encourage you to do the same, I still occasionally participate in this habit from childhood. There is a comfort to it.
Change is going to happen, and we are often not given a week or two to embrace the change. When it happens, no amount of desire for things to be like they were can turn back the clock. Change happens, and if we adapt “with” the change rather than “to” the change, we will be better prepared for the next change.
Even durable rocks get worn down by the river, but a fragile leaf can ride the current for miles.
Mike Ditka the dog and I discuss things like this. He is more open to change than me. During long walks he tell me how he is up for a new adventure or ready to make a dramatic life shift, but I catch him looking at places where we have memories together. Like clockwork I bring up Heraclitus and remind him that we cannot live those memories again. Then he reminds me that he is more of an Epictetus kind of guy and gives me these words, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters.” Together we make new memories on the trail paved with so many yesterdays.