Change: Friend, Foe, or Trickster?

Is change good, bad, or something else entirely?

Looking back on some of the major changes in your life, there were probably times when you welcomed change with open arms, eager to discover whatever lay ahead. There have likely been occasions when instead of welcoming change, you resisted and ran from it — even when you knew change of some sort was unavoidable or perhaps very much needed.

Part of what makes change so unnerving is its inherent unpredictability. Even a minor change in life can be an intense experience that destabilizes us and leaves us feeling disoriented. No matter how much you try to plan and prepare for it, change has the potential to wind up encompassing more than you bargained for.

The following excerpt vividly captures that intensity and that element of the unexpected which change inherently possesses:

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“Oh, you thought ‘change’ meant you would leave only the bad stuff behind? It’s not quite so neat and tidy as that. Sometimes change is akin to passing through a whirlwind, a spinning vortex — disorientation, destabilization. And when you get thrown out on the other side, you realize a lot more changed than you bargained for. Change can be a friend. Change can also be a trickster.”

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