Invitations to Change

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BY: T. Franklin Murphy | November 2018 (edited October 19, 2021)

A picture of a flowering garden with gardening tools, symbolizing beauty and work. A Flourishing Life Society article on personal development

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When life goes wrong, view the displeasure as an invitation to change.

Life continually sends invitations for change. When our garden starts to wither, and flowers cease to bloom, we shouldn’t blame the sun or the clouds. The garden of our soul calls for attention. To flourish, our souls need compassionate tending. We must trim the flowers, fertilize the soil and drive out the pests. As a flourishing garden quickly declines without care, so does the grandness of our souls. We must give compassionate care to flourish.

Struggle Suggests a Need for Change

When relationships become stale, employment stalls, and our sense of well-being stagnates, we must heed the signals, welcoming the invitations for change. We can bitterly deny or ruthlessly blame for these displeasures, many do. Our futures march forward, we are the ones to experience the outcomes of today. The mess by happenstance or the order by design is dependent upon our actions of today.

"We can bitterly deny or ruthlessly blame for these displeasures, many do. Our futures march forward, we are the ones to experience the outcomes of today."

Do We Listen for Subtle Messages of Changes?

How do you respond to the quiet invitations for change? Do you do more of the same? Do you become angry at your hand in life? Or do you seek errors in your ways, the areas in need of attention?

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
Barack Obama

Habits, addictions and avoidance invade our souls and destroy the beautiful leaves and flowers, preventing growth, and inviting decay. We must give heed to these invitations, look a little deeper, search our souls, discover our feelings, and convert these discoveries into improved action. We can sit back in laziness, justify the failures, sorrowing over our circumstances. This is the choice of many.

"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."
Viktor E. Frankl

Life will not tire; it will continue to send invitations to change, increasing the intensity of the notice as the failures accumulate, and destruction accelerates. We must act before demise is certain. When time passes and only sorrows and regrets remain, we must see the evidence—we need to change. Yet, we are stubborn. Millions of others thrive in the environments we condemn. The world doesn't need to change (although we work to change it). We need to adapt to succeed in the environment surrounding us.

Pull on the gloves, grab the tools and go to work.

(Adapted and Edited from FLS 2011 post)

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