Choose To Say Yes To Transformation

Time doesn’t change us. It just unfolds us. — Max Frisch

Even though there is no time, past, present, or future, it’s how we experience life—as an unfolding, a transformation.

We can either view transformation as something to fight against or embrace it.

And it’s easier, in the long run, to embrace it, to think of change, transformation, as an unfolding, like the bloom on a flower. It’s who we have always been. And instead of fighting the changes that bring us to full bloom, we embrace them.

In my twenties, when I told her what I wanted to do with my life, my mentor paused, smiled at me, and said, “Let your life unfold.”

I understood she was gently telling me that my idea of what I wanted at the time was not how it was going to be. And that was a good thing. I wasn’t the flower I thought I was or believed I was supposed to be. I was someone else, and my unfolding would work perfectly if I just took steps to support it and then let it happen.

Because her following words were, “Let’s get you back to school to finish what you started first.”

One step at a time. Do what is in front of you to do.

Years later, in 2008, I wrote a blog post about how to bloom our lives in seven steps with the idea of unfolding our unique spiritual blessings. I had been thinking about what she had said to me because my husband and I had just begun transforming our new house and gardens.

Now, in 2022, there is no part of either the gardens or house that hasn’t been transformed.

Sometimes it has been transformed more than once. We changed things if we discovered the first design wasn’t quite right. This urge to transform means we have removed walls, added windows, built and rebuilt decks, put in paths, added multiple gardens, made habitats, let things grow instead of mowing… the list of what we did is endless.

And we still have a list of more things we wish to do. I constantly need to improve what I see around me. I can try to shut that urge off, but it will somehow burst out like a crazy thing, so I have found it best to plan for it rather than letting it take over like the invasive kudzu vine.

Transforming is something we are all designed to do. The universe is constantly expanding, unfolding, and blooming.

Our personal transformations are a process that requires our active participation—mentally, spiritually, and often physically. We follow the steps and do the work. The qualities of happiness, beauty, safety, and love are something all of us desire, and they always involve transformation.

Whether it’s transforming ourselves or our surroundings, it is a creative impulsion that we must allow to happen in whatever way it comes. Sometimes it’s a big thing. Often it’s a build-up of little things.

The daffodils I plant each fall have multiplied to all areas of our garden. A yellow and white riot of colors transforms the day and my outlook every time I see them. One bulb planted becomes many. One idea planted becomes many.

That first idea of what I thought life was asking me to do was a good idea. How it unfolded was not how I had imagined it would. But that’s because I am not in charge. And it is much better than I could have made up on my own.

We are the creative impulse of the Divine. We are not the Creator. And that is a good thing.

We let ourselves be guided by the creative desire to transform.

It’s easy to tell the difference between when our human ego and human will are driving the transformation, and when we follow the internal guidance, which is often called the still, small voice.

One is a compulsion. The other is an impulsion.

The desires to make war, defeat enemies, control, and make money at all costs are not Divine Impulsions. They are human-driven compulsions. We must, and can, stop feeding them, either by our lack of attention to what is happening or by assisting them.

We all see in the world the outrageous tragedies that such compulsions produce. Let’s ensure that we don’t support that desire in others and ourselves.

We can transform our lives and the world’s affairs by letting go and doing what needs to be done by listening to and following the Divine Impulsions, not the human compulsions.

Let’s fully, and only, support the unfolding—the transformations—that bloom within the soil of kindness and respect for all living things.

That transformation process has included the original blog post. It expanded into a talk, then a class, and a soon-to-be book in The Shift Series called Blooming Your Life: Seven Simple Steps To Experiencing Consistent Happiness. Watch for its arrival in the fall of 2022.