It isn’t something of which most of us are aware, but we human beings are “marked” with a certain strange feature: and that is…we want to change.
Perhaps you’re thinking: “What’s so strange about that?” After all, who amongst us isn’t familiar with this ever-present longing (of ours)? Granted, taken by itself, this desire doesn’t seem so strange; that is, until we realize the obvious: we are always changing. In fact, not a single moment goes by where who — and what — we are remains the same.

Statistics vary, but in less than seven years there won’t be a single cell left in any of our bodies that’s the same cell there today. This means that any human being who “wants” to change is like a mountain river wanting to reach the valley floor. It’s a done deal; that’s what mountain rivers do, and “changing” should be our first nature. Yet…

Any true longing we have to change is born of our innate wish to transcend our present level of being: on the one hand to know, consciously — unmistakably — that we are fulfilling some unseen, but higher reason for our very existence; and, at the same time, as a pre-requisite to this invisible mandate, to rise above those prevalent and often quite dark parts of us that drag us down, and that soil or spoil our relationships with others. Few would argue these points. Yet, this longing to participate in the perfection of our being has been subverted and, perhaps more truly spoken, stolen from out of our hands… [to be continued]