Yesterday morning I awoke as usual with a whole new day ahead of me.  I lived and loved and worked and played for seventeen hours before I returned to my bed at the close of the evening.  By the time I closed my eyes and sank into my pillow, I had become a different person.  Each event of each hour of each day of my life changes me in some way.  I know this because I sometimes take the time to reflect on the weeks and months and years that have made up my life.  In the big-picture view, I can see that I am not the person I was when I was twenty or forty or even sixty years old.  I suppose it is no secret that we grow and change and age as the years go by; but I have been thinking about the changes that have happened to me and thinking of how they have changed the way I see myself in the midst of living.

How we respond to the events that change us determines who we become as we evolve throughout a lifetime.  The scientist — or perhaps she is a philosopher —  who lives in my mind asks, “So what?”  If I am to believe, as I do, that each of us has a purpose for being alive, then I need to assume that we change for some good reason.  When I reflect on the years that have passed in my own life, I see that the result of all the changes is that I bring something different to the world each time I grow.

Change is a part of being alive — of being human.  Sometimes the changes that the world brings my way are profound.  Most times they are subtle and nearly go unnoticed.  The “so what” question becomes important when I realize that just as the world impacts me and changes me and causes me to become something new in each passing moment, I then impact the world as a changed person.  Each time I change, it is a new person who makes choices, forms intentions, and carries out actions that can change the world.  Some changes in the world are profound and readily visible.  Most changes are subtle and nearly go unnoticed.  Just as I can reflect on years of change and see that I have become a different person than I was twenty years ago, I can reflect on the world around me and see how the cumulative effect of the changes each of us contributes to the universe have an impact that is obvious when viewed over time.

Change happens all the time.  Sometimes the world changes us, and sometimes we change the world.  The difference between yesterday and today may not be obvious; but when we look at the big picture and see how change accumulates over time, we begin to see that all those subtle differences do add up.  We learn that each event that takes place in each moment matters in ways that we might not understand today but will live with tomorrow.  We have a wonderful opportunity to take all we learn as life changes us and use it in ways that will change our world for the better.  Let’s be aware of the changes that come our way and ask, “So what?”  When we embrace change and become aware of its lessons, we can live intentionally and be the change we would like to see in the world.