Changing Vistas

I live in Florida now. I have to keep reminding myself it is not a dream. Living beside a lake, albeit with a resident alligator, in a lovely home with a pool, seems more like a vacation to me than routine living.

The sunrise colors of the morning and the Disney fireworks at night are also a daily reminder of the path life has made me traverse to get to this. For every destination is a consequence of steps you have taken, or been made to take. Each moment you live is because of other moments you have acted upon, or reacted to. Each experience you have is a direct effect of  of the attitudes and opinions you have formed and developed through the years.

It has been tumultuous journey, and I am grateful it has been so much better than so many others whose life transitions involve the horrors of deprivation and war.

Nevertheless, all transitions are traumatic. Every change, especially one that you have never anticipated uproots you in many ways - physically of course, but emotionally and socially too. Making a voluntary change does not make it easier, especially if the purpose, like mine, was to simply rip away the old. Life's vicissitudes are tough, but they help you grow, and learn and see things in a new light every time. The  freshness one sees in the lay of the land, the food, the climate, in the smells and sounds of a new region, in the thinking and culture of a different set of people; it all adds a new dimension to your own person, and consciously or not, you grow to be better, more aware, more tolerant, more open-minded, more open-hearted. More accepting of what life has thrown at you.

I look with immense curiosity upon people who have had a relatively even sailing in life with no drastic changes, with things moving on their planned road-map at an even keel. The simple prospect of being born, living and dying in the same place must be comforting. To have the same familiar surroundings, to grow within your own city, to have around you all that you will ever know, and therefore ever want, right there, always. It must bring about a certain kind of peaceful stability. I am not sure, however if these smooth lives are a blessing. Is not being the same, however satisfactory, leaving you stagnant? And is not stagnancy the opposite of progress? On the other hand, is progress and growth worth it if they come with pain and stress?

I do not know if we would be content if the vistas and horizons we see through life remain the same, but we certainly would not know any better. We certainly would not appreciate real deep happiness when it comes, we certainly would have nothing to compare our lives to, or even our own older selves to. We would not learn to keep adapting, growing and learning. And yes, living.

Whether the lives we lead are more fulfilling with change, or more effective without it, we will only know if have lived them well. What you have been given is inconsequential, what you do with it is all that matters. I think it is easier to know what to do with life when you have seen more, felt more and experienced more. And for that, change, and a little tribulation, is necessary.