Synonymous with Change

Propel, propel, propel your craft,
Softly down the liquid solution,
Happily, Happily, Happily, Happily,
Existence is but an illusion.

Did you recognize “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat”?

At my house we have lots of silly verses to the childhood favorite, but this synonym version is particularly fun.  By shifting each word just a bit the rhyme become almost unrecognizable. Change is like that. It doesn’t take much to throw the whole system off-kilter.

Back in the day, when I was in graduate school, Family Systems Theory was all the rage in pastoral care. I remember reading Friedman’s Fables, which tells witty tales that expose the paradox and dilemma of the human condition. Friedman was a family therapist and rabbi who applied his clinical training to the work of faith in a way that really had not been done before. The famous model for family systems theory is the mobile. A large mobile is suspended with every person in the system hanging from a balance of wires and arms. When any one piece of the mobile is moved, the whole system is disturbed and will wobble in all directions until finding the balance point again. Even a small change in a single member of the family or community can send the whole system reeling.

When you start to understand that each of us lives in a system that is interconnected with other systems, and you realize that pace of change has increased significantly with technology and our sound byte world, the amount of insecurity and imbalance in our systems is significant. My meditation this week is a prayer that has been rising in my heart as my mobile shifts and rocks and I seek the homeostasis that really just does not exist.

Prayer for Times of Change

Holy One, you are present in all times and all places. 

You alone are unchanging,

Even as our understandings shift almost momentarily.  

Even as our experiences constantly open us to new insights

Even as our fear limits us and our hope propels us forward.

You created all that is, and created everything with its own capacity for change.

          The tides ebb and flow, the winds blow,

          Our bodies pump blood and breathe

          Each fiber of our being ages and marches toward our own finitude.

Change is both a cause for growth

          And a source of anxiety

Change is proof of life

          And a constant reminder that control is an illusion.

Change is both friend and nemesis –both an escape from the status quo and a panic from loss of footing.

I pray for guidance and strength– a supportive embrace and a gentle push; a wise word and a moment of brevity.

In times of change, and in all times and in all places

may I trust more than I doubt,

love more than I lash out and

seek gentleness and kindness in all things.

AMEN

Blessings, Stephanie