Setbacks happen. Extreme example: A heart attack. Imagine saying, "Wow, a new experience!" With delight. Which was once the response of a monk in Myanmar, just before he died. No expectations nor confidence shattered. Intimate with the moment. Only curious as to what unfolds, even death.

We relate to our world through change. But how present are we for what is occurring? The experience of earth even when negative? A customer account cancels. A supply chain corrupts. Becomings and endings. Meeting what is takes practice. Small steps. Learning to flow concurrent with the moment. Leaning into the intimacy of change. No self-referencing, reactive. Observing.

I begin to have choices. I can trust myself to find reference points as I need them for an appropriate response, to flow with tension, sensing, noting.

The tension of possibility, negative OR positive. Curiosity for what is, so it can open into making things better. Not easy. Yet this is what makes me effective with the impact I seek. Changes the way I think about creating change. Brings ease. Possibly: Pure joy in learning, contributing amid contradictions. Losses happen, inevitably. There'll be setbacks. Delighted curiosity can ride these changes into much greater success.

Hafiz writes about a mime standing upon a gallows for a crime he did not commit. He describes how the mime removes his heart from his body: "...for an extraordinary moment, it looked like someone was giving birth to Love again." And then:

“The great breeze comes by. The sun and moon
join hands; they bow so gracefully
that for a moment, for a moment everyone
knows that Joy is real. “

For me, at times, it's like welcoming a calm beyond the noise. A knowing that in meeting what is I also meet that I am enough, right here in the moment. We are enough. It's like tasting the silence that allows non-silence to play its grand drama of change. Joy is real.

Tyler Cowen from the remarkable podcast Conversations with Tyler asks his guests: “What is it you do to train that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?”

How will you train in meeting what is?

For the full poem by Hafiz, click here.

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Change, Part II.