Courage in Change

“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” Richard Lindquist

The familiar

Who doesn’t like what’s familiar?

It’s comfortable. It’s easy. Requires less time. It’s predictable.

The familiar has served you well. You can be lazy and lean into it.

One day you will discover the familiar is not the same.

Disagreement

I disagree with Richard Lindquist.

If courage is the power to let go of the familiar you’re screwed.

I believe you do not have a choice here.

You are forced to let go of the familiar with or without courage.

Every moment we live and breathe our familiar is different. We cannot hold the familiar. It is ephemeral, ever changing as all life is. If the familiar is not changing we are dead.

Age alters your familiar

The “familiar” changing is the evidence of age.

We humans dislike change but to live life is to change.

Accepting change is the human struggle.

From birth to death change is the only constant we can depend upon.

How we muster the courage to manage the changes that aging inevitably presents determines whether our life is fulfilling or not.

Life is a river of events spilling into the sea of constant change.

You cannot alter that fact. You can only control how you choose to manage your change. How you choose to accept your familiar is different now.

Fortifications

Arm yourself as best you can.

Accept that where you are right now is where you are supposed to be.

• Search for paths to fortify your acceptance.
• Understand you will know the path when you find it.
• Faithfully follow your intuition.
• Steel against the tremors of time with best practices.
• Best practice for you is given. Open yourself to your gift.
• Understand all familiar will look different.
• Adjustment. Different not bad.
• Adjustments aide in your “mindful manage”. Adjustments make you stronger.

River of change

Sometimes when we experience letting go of the familiar it may feel totally upside down.

Upside down is fine. It will be right-side up soon. What’s up must come down and conversely what’s down will be up. From the moment of our inception we have witnessed this never ending reality.

Arriving at the end of our summers change begins to slap us in the face.

If we are aging Americans releasing the familiar may be difficult. Americans glorify youth, often rejecting the elderly. Perhaps, Lindquist was referring to aging Americans. They need courage and power to release the familiar.

They may be infected with the dis-ease of Agism. Letting go is hard with this mindset.

There are many cultures that embrace the changing of the familiar, or aging (what ever label you want). They don’t need power of courage to do it. They celebrate the death of the old familiar, welcoming the new. Admiring the wisdom that each person brings to their life.

Courage is the power to accept age as the ever changing familiar.

Thanks for reading until the end.

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