Open Space founder, Harrison Owen, reminds us often that everything has a beginning, middle and end. This spring’s spectacular flowers are no exceptions. It’s a reminder that change is a constant in life. The paradox is that we experience peace to the degree that we embrace change. Zen teachers remind us that because of change all good things happen. Because of change, we are able to be born, we grow, we learn, we gain new ways of being, doing, and having.
Our attemps to surprise-proof the world not only don’t work, but they add to suffering because they are ways we resist the reality of change, from which all good things emerge.
I love watching people in organizations twitch at the intersection of curiosity and horror when I suggest that they need to expect their plans to change and if they want to resist anything it’s the notion of an unchanged or unchangable plan. That’s why prediction is futile - because it implies expecting a future that we can count and depend on. Change implies a future we can expect will change, whether we participate in that change or not. Of course there is a word for the act of participating in change. It’s joy.
