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Can You Choose to Change Anyone or Anything Other Than Yourself?
No. You can’t change anyone or anything but yourself. But that’s not a bad thing.
As I sit here, pondering what to write for today’s blog, I’m listening to birds outside my window.
They sound joyful and content. They don’t care about the fog, the temperature, the cars on the road, and people passing by. They just sit in the trees and warble their songs at one another. Not a care in the world, here and now, but to sing.
And I wonder — why do I care so much about the things I can’t control? Why do I focus so much of my time and attention on people and things I can’t do jack shit about?
My mind wanders to what my friends, family, and other companions are talking about. Fears of a world seemingly going mad and accepting more and more disempowerment. My medieval organization’s leadership disempowering those trying to protect everyone else’s safety. Struggles with a relative’s health and a whole host of issues impacting family over that.
Caring in the general, big-picture sense of wanting good for other people is not a bad thing. But when it distracts you from life and shifts your focus outside, it opens pathways to unhealthy practices wrought from depression, anxiety, anger, and other…
