Changing change

The first step was to think of a theme. Then when the theme was born, I had to think of a way to develop the idea as a potter would clay. As the potting wheel turned, I found the clay in my hands had a life of its own. I wanted it to be a pot called “Change” but it insisted on being called “Surrender.”

Here we are today on another page in time. It’s 2019. (If this sees light a little earlier, let that statement stay just the same.)

Change was my first thought for the year. It is an appropriate topic. Everybody will surely pick up this line of thinking. We all want change but we end up still wearing soiled clothes called “bad habits”: too much drinking, overeating, gossiping, loitering and a host of other ill behaviors we want to end.

We try harder and harder each year and it seems that our bad habits also try harder and harder to stay.

As I write this, the clay pot I am forming into an artistic piece suddenly collapses. I start again. This time it wants me to talk about surrender.

“Change your topic about change. Talk about surrender,” the lump of clay orders me.

The harder I cling to my idea of change, the harder the clay tells me to talk about surrender.

This is the heart of the problem of change. We want it but we are not willing enough to let go of comfortable attitudes and habits. It does not seem to matter whether the habits and attitudes are either good or bad. We think that their antiquity gives them the right to stay.

No matter how many times we make a list of things to change each New Year, if one element is not present, then change will not happen.

I give up. Surrender is an excellent starting point for change.

Surrender is a humbling first step to freedom from the slavery of bad habits that nail us down. Until we acknowledge we are weak, we cannot remove the soiled clothes of the past.

When I was young, I found excuses not to change. Then I learned that surrender is the beginning of triumph.

Since March 2018, I have not had a drink of soda. I stopped eating chocolates and junk food in 2014. I won over my bad food choices by surrendering to good eating habits.

Surrendering is not easy. First, there is the acknowledgment that on our own we can not do anything. We need someone to support our decision to change.

On the spiritual level, it is yielding our will to the Higher One. It is allowing God to take over our weaknesses.

My lump of clay was correct in telling to talk about surrendering. Maybe this year we can we can take this one small step to start the change.