Ruts and changes.

 

Once again I was gently reminded that I lived my life by a very strict routine. "Do you never get bored doing the same things all the time?"

There is a sense in what is being said and asked. But looking back over the last few months I cannot believe just how many new ventures I have taken up or got involved in. Then I adjust my routine make space and fit in the new tasks and experiences. Very soon they become part of my routine and yes many would say my rut.

Somebody, the name has slipped my mind and has not been included in my notebook of quotes, said "Any change, at any time, for any reason, is to be deplored."  Now I may need and feel comfortable with my routine but I could never agree to this. There has to change it is a change that takes us forward. I am doing and achieving things I never thought I ever would. I love my routine but hate ruts.

Openness is essentially the willingness to grow, a distaste for ruts, eagerly standing on tip-toe for a better view of what tomorrow brings. A man once bought a new radio, brought it home, placed it on the refrigerator, plugged it in, turned it to Radio 4, and then pulled all the knobs off! He had already tuned in all he ever wanted or expected to hear.  

It is because we are prepared to make changes that we move forward.

On June 4, 1783, at the market square of a French village of Annonay, not far from Paris a smoky bonfire on a raised platform was fed by wet straw and old wool rages. Tethered above, straining its lines, was a huge taffeta bag 33 feet in diameter. In the presence of "a respectable assembly and a great many other people," and accompanied by great cheering, the balloon was cut from its moorings and set free to rise majestically into the noon sky. 

Six thousand feet into the air it went, the first public ascent of a balloon, the first step in the history of human flight. It came to earth several miles away in a field, where it was promptly attacked by pitchfork-waving peasants and torn to pieces as an instrument of evil!  If we had been meant to fly we would have been born with wings.

When the first train carry people made its first journey somebody wrote the following letter.

As you may know, Prime Minister, "railroad' carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by 'engines' which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. 

The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed. 

We cannot consider change without some comment on my starting point.  I began by talking about whether I might be against change and stuck in my rut. So one or two little thoughts about personal change and changes to those around us.

1  Some people will change when they see the light. Others change only when they feel the heat.

2  Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. 

And my last little thought.

Everybody thinks of changing Humanity and Nobody thinks of changing themselves. 

Have a wonderful day.