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“The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens” (Rainer Maria Rilke).
AREN’T YOU GLAD WE CAN CHOOSE TO BE CHANGED? If we couldn’t envision a better future and then decide to do things that result in a transformation from one quality of life to another, we’d be stuck right where we are. It’s a marvelous ability, this ability to undergo change. We ought not to (a) underestimate the extent to which we can be transformed, or (b) underappreciate the decision-making ability that can set those changes in motion.
The positive transformations that take place in our lives are good not only for us but for our loved ones. Right now, none of us has a finished character, and we need to be changing and growing in the direction of realizing our full potential. When we submit ourselves to positive change, and even actively seek it out, we are showing one of the highest kinds of love to the other human beings who know us.
The importance of emotion. Carl Jung argued that there “can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.” I believe he was right. Real transformation must involve the heart as well as the head. In particular, we must learn to look ahead and taste the joy that will come from making good changes.
The importance of solitude. One reason we rarely experience any significant transformation nowadays is that we spend too little time alone. “Solitude,” said Henri J. M. Nouwen, “is the furnace of transformation.” We’d open the door to positive change more often if we’d get away from the crowd and go someplace conducive to reflection.
Don’t discount the possibility that before this day is done something you think, something you do, or something that happens to you will trigger a large transformation in your life. Will the change be for the better or for the worse? Well, that depends on what you choose to think, what you choose to do, and how you choose to respond to what happens to you. Although I don’t know you personally, I do hope that the ways in which you allow yourself to be transformed will be truly and lastingly good, not only for you but for those around you.
“Even a thought, even a possibility, can shatter us and transform us” (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche).
Gary Henry — WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
