Try to step in the same river twice.
Someone said something twenty-five hundred years ago that I have been thinking a lot about recently. Heraclitus, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, stated:
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, wow, seems like a long time for us humans, doesn’t it? Think about that for a moment. Over 100 generations. Your 98th great-grandparents were around during Heraclitus’ life. Of course, from the perspective of the stardust that we are made of, it's just a short blip.
Think for a moment, and marvel at what we have learned in that time. Everything humans have created, how we have changed? So much change.
Why, do you wonder, that we often want things to stay the same?
Take a moment to focus on a thought experiment. Imagine something that will not change. If done honestly, you may find it impossible to imagine that something. Why?
It is hard to imagine something that is so foreign to our experience in this life. No one has ever experienced anything that is not changing. Our very life is made up of tiny microsecond cellular changes.
No change = No life
or
Life = Change
The mystery is, why do we constantly want things not to change? We often want stability and safety and therefore see change as something that threatens those.
Try waking up every morning and expecting change, to accept it, to even want it.
You will never be disappointed.
