CEBU, Philippines - To borrow the words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "The only thing that is constant is change."
In this modern world governed by noise and dizzying pace, and a voracious selfish appetite to have it all, what meaning does the word "change" take on? Is it about quieting down or slowing down a bit? Or is it changing speed to even higher gears so that nothing else matters but one's own existence?
Or, maybe, we'd rather see change for the better, not only for ourselves but for others as well. But how does that change start? Who is going to start it?
Truth is, change is always happening. It does not take for us to cause it. Nor does it need our consent for it to take place. Change is a constant event.
But the change that happens on its own does not necessarily bring on the improvement that we want to see. The change that takes place as a natural course of things does not necessarily make our lives better or us happier. We are getting older every second of the day and have to do all we can to soften the impact of the ageing process on our health and looks.
The change that truly matters is the one that we ourselves want and cause. Because we are not satisfied with mediocre existence. Because we want to be true to our core nature.
Change, therefore, starts with a decision. A decision to start working on the change we want to see. It starts with ourselves.
There is a price to pay for change, of course. First, we need to rearrange the order of things about us or in our lives. After all, we want change - we want a different order.
And it may take for us to leave our comfort zone. As infants we were most comfortable in our mothers' womb. But we had to get out of that perfect place - because we needed to grow and develop further; we needed to change our living space.
Even our loving mothers, fully aware of the risks of the world she was bringing us into, had to assist us in such unwelcome change. She understood it was necessary for our own good. We almost got suffocated at our first gasp of the air outside, our weak lungs not yet quite ready for the onrush of oxygen. But the change was necessary, and so it had to take place.
The Serendipity Prayer goes: "Lord, please give me the courage to change the things that I can change, the humility to accept the things I cannot, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Perfectly put. Not all change is good or necessary or even possible. But where change has taken place, the only way to deal with it is to accept it.
If we cannot change the world, we can at least change our attitude towards the world. And the change we wish to see we might as well start in ourselves today.