Change

What a grand adventure! The biggest part of the adventure is a part we do not like. It is that thing called "change." It is the one constant of life.

Roy T. Bennett once said, "Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don't respect, appreciate, and value you. Spend your life with people who make you smile, laugh, and feel loved." We can get so caught up in planning our life that we forget that life is the journey that is waiting for us.

When I went to college, the criminal justice department would at one point during one of their big classes have a couple men come into the classroom and force a student to go with them. Now remember, this was the 60's. In today's world, the result would be extreme violence and every attorney in the region would prepare to file a lawsuit.

The teacher would then have everyone write a description of the incident and the results were staggering. They ranged from one thug to a gang of six. They ranged from masks to outlandish tattoos. The assailants didn't speak at all and yet spoke perfect Arabic.

Change unnerves us; we like to be in a comfort zone all the time. Yet it has been said that if life is a sailing vessel, we are not meant to spend all our time in the harbor.

My business partner used to ask at the end of a week how I thought the week went. Then he would tell me over and over again, "If you did not make someone angry this week. you are not living your life in full voice."

We always have the choice in our journey here. Joseph Campbell has said, "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people go no further than exist. Break free of that; step to the front where the vision is the best. Make your choices full out.

Our job is to be the dreamer mentioned in the song "Imagine." It is to be able to say, "Yes, I am a dreamer." For I am the dreamer who can only find his way by moonlight. His punishment is to see the dawn prior to the rest of the world. It is to know in this kind of full out journey there are times when we will fail and lay in the gutter for a moment. It is during that very moment before we stand back up that we realize we are looking up at all the stars. The world shines bright if we but stop and see.