"The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it."  I've borrowed this phrase from that old Roman Marcus Aurelius over the years. We like to think that the subject of "change" is something "new" or at least too familiar to our lives today. But, as you can see, the human mind has been trying to grasp change for a very long time.

How we deal with change has a lot to do with what we believe about change. Do you think of change as being a negative situation you need to cope with, put up with, or attempt to deny, fighting it tooth and nail? Or do you see change as a natural part of life, providing opportunities to learn and grow into someone better, stronger, or happier?

Sometimes, we just need to put change into perspective. On a cosmic level, stars are born every day, explode every day, die every day - we just aren't able to see them. Our own Sun made an incredible change a week or so ago, when it expelled massive amounts of radiation, causing some pretty spectacular auroras around the world. The Sun has been doing this for eons, but in a recent change for humankind, we were able to see it actually happen because of advances in space technology.

On a smaller scale, our children grow and change every day, as they learn to draw and read and play with each other. We rejoice with them as they discover the world around them, and we encourage them to discover and learn - changing them forever. In fact, most of our own cells die and are replaced by new cells all the time - which is probably why you and I look different than we did several years ago!

We'll talk more about change in the coming days, but for now, give some thought to what you believe about change, and how that belief is affecting what you do and say, and how you feel.