A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. – Muhammad Ali
Every experience continuously changes us. Moment to moment, we change, we grow, we become different people by the way that we allow experiences to shape us and by the way we choose to react or respond to these experiences. In Yoga, “teachers often talk about holding the postures, but notice how there is no fixed thing to hold on to. Moment by moment, breath by breath, the posture recreates itself.” This, too, is true when it comes to all aspects of life. It can happen so slowly, at such a microscopic level that you may not be able to see these subtle changes but we are not the same people we were a moment ago. You are not the same person you are now as you were before reading this just as I am not the same person now as I was a moment ago before writing this. Our pain and suffering in this world comes from trying to hold on to the many things in life that are not supposed to be constant. Trying to hold on to and not let change that which is destined to, that which is natural to. We suffer in trying to have control over that which we do not and that which we never will. The only constant in the world is change itself.
If you want to see this process, the process of growth, change, and life buy a single rose and watch it bloom, grow, and wither away all within a few weeks. This too is what happens to each and every living being. However, for some, it happens too slowly to recognize.
