Accepting Change as It Is

 

One of the ideas I find most striking in Zhuangzi is this:

Do not let your spirit be disturbed by change. Accept change as part of nature.

Youth is good.
Old age is good.

The beginning of life is good.
And the end of life is also part of the whole.

In other words,

Stop demanding that life remain a certain way.

Do not cling to youth.
Do not resist aging.
Do not welcome only success and reject decline.

Just as spring becomes summer, and autumn becomes winter, we are always changing too.

The goal is not to stop that change.

It is to stop fighting it.

To be able to say:

This is where I am now, and this too belongs to life.

Enjoy life while it is here.
Accept aging when it comes.
And even see death as part of nature.

Change continues.

But perhaps freedom begins when the world can change without taking our inner peace with it.