Day 31 - Part 3 Living Life to the Full To Live is to Change

Tomorrow you will, in some small way, be different to who you are today. Something will have happened yesterday to change you.

Look in the mirror. The face that peers back at you today is slightly different to the one who greeted you ten or twenty or thirty years ago. There are wrinkles now and frown lines or bags under the eyes. There might be skin blemishes. Each and every day we are changing but day by day we can rarely make out those changes. It is only when we look back that we can see how we have grown in maybe strength or courage or wisdom or fortitude over these years.

95 per cent of our bodies will have changed over the last five years. How or when that happened, we don’t see. But change it does. Change is an integral part of life. In fact, the definition of life might be to change. Therefore, when we refuse to change, we are refusing to live.

Change can be hard because it means walking on a path that we’ve never walked upon before and deep down we like the familiarity of things that we know and trust. Leaving those safe paths behind can be scary and daunting, for we do not know what is ahead.

But if we refuse to follow life on the paths she is leading us down, we might lose touch with her and begin to die a little each and every day. For if we let go of the hand of life, death will surely come and try and take our other hand.

We can remain young inside until we are 122 if we desire it, or we can be 122 inside by the age of 35. It is our choice each day to either live a little differently, exploring new lands, or sitting outside our tombs, preparing for the grim reaper’s visit.

In order to live fully, we must let go of all the things we hold onto which bring death in one form or another to our door. These may be familiar old friends, like a comfy pair of slippers, which we have loved wearing. However, deep down we know that there are now holes in the souls and they smell a little and have seen better days.

Life wants to bring you a new pair of slippers which she promises will fit you just as well, and also have that lovely cushiony base and fabulous new look which you will learn to love, just as much or maybe even more than the old pair.

However, life has to wait for you to choose to let go of the old in order to embrace the new. In order to do that she knows you need to trust her to deliver what she promises, new life and life to the full.

Life will never yank your slippers off you. It must always be your choice. For those who know life well, it gets easier and easier to let go and prepare for the new, because when they look back they remember life’s faithfulness and how she kept her promises. At the time, the new slippers might not have looked all that we hoped for, but in time, looking back, those slippers were never regretted, for they lead to a new and exciting life.

Life always has new shoes and slippers for us when our old ones have become worn and past their best by date. Trust her, for life can only bring life. It is in her DNA. It does what is says on the tin.

How do you view changes in your life?

What do you fear most about them?

Look back over your life and pinpoint the major changes. What were your feelings as they happened? What were your feelings a few years on or now? What can you learn from this?

What new things came into your life by letting go of the old? Have those changes blessed you in some way? If so, how?