By Kahu Brian
Ho’ololi is the Hawaiian word for transformation and change. “Change” in any language can bring up all kinds of feelings. It can seem like growth and empowerment. It can bring up the anxiety of the unknown like what happens after graduation, or moving, or leaving a job or just the feeling you get when the light turns green. In either case, it is not the change this reflected but the actions of the individual in those circumstances.
A friend of mine once said, “I hate change. I wish things could always be the same.” Perhaps that is a sign of the joy she felt in her life. Perhaps it was a wish to avoid difficult circumstances. The statement created a conversation between us.
I asked her some questions; Do you change your clothes? Do you put your foot on the brake at a red light? Do you eat different food for different meals? She said she did change in those circumstances.
The next question is one I think anyone can ask, “If I like some change, what are the kinds of change I resist?” When we see where we are uncomfortable, there is where we can begin to find excitement.
I live in the desert climate near Palm Springs, CA. The temperature varies from 30’s at night in the winter to this time of year when it’s over 110 degrees pretty regularly. I ask local people, “Isn’t it a beautiful day?” and the response varies from “Yes” to “I can’t wait for winter.”
The person who intrigues me the most is the one who says, “I live here but I don’t have to like it.” That can make for a very isolating experience. It is like a guest walking in your home saying, “I’ll stay for dinner but I don’t like your furniture.” How many times do you think they would be invited back.
Are there ways we create a resistance? “I don’t like my job but it pays the mortgage.” When you get to the office or home from work what are kind of feelings are you manifesting in your experience?
By its very nature a place will be the same. The building, the chairs, the computer are going to stay the same. The thing you can change is, well, you. Can you change your perception of the experience or transform your point of view?
For example, every Sunday the Camelot Theater is transformed from a movie theater in to a place of worship for those attending InnerFaith Spiritual Center. The chairs and building and the lobby are ‘the same.’ The magic of transformation happens with the intention that each person brings. It begins with the Dr. Stroud and the magic flows for each person who walks in. For an hour it is transformed in to a place of worship. Then the hour ends and it is a movie theater again.
Can we take that example in to our own situations? Can we transform our commute? Can we make any “desert” a living paradise? When we can transform the thing we “have” to the thing we “enjoy”? If we can, it brings a little light in to our own day. Be selfish and give yourself some joy to thrive on. That transformation within us may transform something for each of those we connect with along the way.
Ride the wave of change from within. Wipe out. Get up. Ride again. Change can be more than we expect. It can be more than we imagine within ourselves. Let change begin and let it begin within me.
