We sometimes get into a rut in life thinking that everything stays the same…always. We often don’t even consider giving change a chance to happen. Change can be sudden and traumatic, but progressive change (even that which is the result of the sudden and traumatic type of change) takes time. People tend to be impatient with life and expect everything to happen NOW according to their own myopic wants, needs, and desires. But do they give the progressive change a chance? No. Their impatience turns to harsh criticism and condemnation instead of taking on a “Let’s see what develops here” attitude. Sometimes they are hardest on themselves for not changing fast enough, like when someone is walking through grief and thinks, “I really should be over this by now.” This can quickly turn to a place of self-abuse. It is important to allow space and time for the change to happen.
There are also those who are completely terrified of change because it tends to challenge and rock the status quo to which they have become accustomed, but also with which they have become burdened. When this happens we have to be patient with those folks because they are going through a process, much like a two year old who will have a meltdown if they have a boundary set. But the boundary is there for good reason, as is the aspect of change in one’s life. And progressive change will not stop challenging the status quo until the change is complete.
When I plant a tree I say a spell to help the tree to grow. I say “Everything changes, everything transmutes. Now let this tree take deep root.” It is an adaptation of another spell from a very long time ago. But it works. The tree grows amazingly well. Yes, I have experimented with planting other trees that were not given the spell. They struggled and, if they survived, they were always a bit stunted and sometimes would become diseased. So now I just say the spell every time a plant a tree.
Everything changes, that is a given. Everything transmutes, that is a choice. Change is inevitable; Growth is optional. We all have the choice to change and transmute or to simply change and not do the transmutation aspect of the change, which means that we are left flailing around as the change happens around us, feeling like it is happening AT us, but we refuse to process the change into a medicine we can carry within us. The art of transmutation is the art of taking something, anything, in our lives, even the poisonous situations, and adapting it into something positive with which we can walk through life. That does not mean that toxic situations were a “gift” by any stretch. It means that our resilience and our drive to transmute were powerful enough to get us through it and to the other side of it where we rise in our inner strength and fortitude. We cannot and should not ever give anyone else credit for that process. That is all ours and no one else’s.
And when we acknowledge that everything changes and everything transmutes, it is actually deep within ourselves that the process takes deep root.