December 21–Hope: Change

It’s been cold and wet and gloomy for many days now.  We even had a day of snow.  Today is a day of change.  Physically.  Globally.  The earth has tilted as far away from the sun in the northern hemisphere as it can, and today it begins its slow shift back towards the sun.  The change will come slowly.  Most days it will feel like no change is happening at all. Today is the Winter Solstice.

We may find ourselves unsettled, unhappy, perhaps even outraged with various things in our lives and in our world today.  When those kinds of feelings are strong and/or have been going on for a long time, we may begin to feel like there is no hope for change.  Sudden crises do happen, but most often the difficulties we face take a long time to develop.  We did not arrive at the current state of meanness, oppositional, fractured and cruel way of being in this country and world over night.  This current darkness was a long time in coming.

But, everything is always changing.  Everything.  Always.  And that gives me some, even if sobering, hope.  In the ancient divination system of China known as the I Ching, even the most propitious and auspiciously good sign is always touched by the change that comes immediately on it.  And the worst, most foreboding sign is always touched by the change that comes immediately on it.

And you and I, we are forces.  Since everything is already and always changing, how shall we use our lives, our forces, to bring about something better?

Bob Patrick

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