Old to new

In the Netherlands, midnight on New Year’s Eve, the New Year is greeted with loads of fireworks. It is according to a tradition that the noise will scare away all evil spirits so that they will be left behind in the old, giving everybody the chance to start the new year fresh and clean.

And while I don’t care much for all the noise, I can appreciate the ritual.

It is part of our make-up to not like changes of whatever kind a whole lot. Not even when we know that the changes will bring improvements into our lives. Our immediate response isn’t as much that we are changing from old to new, but more like we are in a transition from old to bad.
And granted, when we are holding any changes at bay for long enough, chances are that whatever truly need to happen in our lives may not come easy. The longer we ignore changes, the greater the needed changes will com in with a bang!

And perhaps when it comes to that point, the ‘new’ that is coming in will appear to be bad. Evil even.

Maybe even so bad that the whole world will be in an uproar!
As such, whoever bad or evil we perceive is not a whole lot more than a messenger uncovering the things that need changing. The problem is that at this point truly everything that should be changed is uncovered all at once.
And then all hell breaks loose!

As has happened so often throughout history, there is a call to kill the messenger.

Now I have no bone to pick in recent events. Although they are foreboding with elections coming up where I live in just a few short months. And no, I don’t like the messenger, nor his message.

What is clear though, it is beyond time for changes. Changes in the way we view our societies, changes in our attitudes ~ both toward ourselves as well as toward others ~ changes in how we structure and organize our communities.

And that is the easy part.

The hard part comes with the changes in our personal lives; the inner changes. The respect we pay ourselves. The sense of friendship toward others, and the discarding of blaming anyone and everyone for the results of our choices ~ both in our lives as well as in our societies.

It seems clear that we are moving from old to new; not gently and evenly, but indeed with a bang!
And we can make the best of it by making the changes that are knocking on the doors of our own homes, of our own hearts…
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