Change

"When we can no longer change a situation,
we are challenged to change ourselves."

                                                       -----Viktor Frankl

No one dislikes change more than me.  I don't readily subscribe to it.  The thought of It upsets my metabolism.  Real growth, however, involves not only accepting change but embracing it as well..  We need to learn to accept some of the events that happen as omens.  We can learn to adapt by changing how we think and view ourselves:  victims or participants in life.

We meet people along the journey, shamans, who guide us through the next levels of our journey.  I've met many.  One in particular comes to mind, Eunice O'hanna.  I met her on a business trip to Mexico where I stayed by design in my favorite town, San Miguel de Allende.

Of course, I did my usual daily walk and scouted places to photograph.  The clock was ticking and I was running late to leave on my business trip for the day.  As I walked passed this home, I noticed an interesting sign.  It read Casa de Collares (house of necklaces) and museum.  It intrigued me, so I knocked on the door and was greeted by a very energetic silver haired lady, Eunice O'hanna.

She welcomed me in.  I was immediately in a very different state of mind as I walked through the doors and into the front of her home, a living workshop and museum.  All of my senses which had been dormant, came to life.  I could feel an energy race through me, it was uncontrollable joy.  She noticed my enthusiasm and asked: "Would you like to see the rest of my home?"

It was absolutely breath taking.  Every wall was painted with Mayan images she had studied and recalled.  Each room had colors that cheered my soul.  There were details that made each part significant.  Her home had truly become a living museum.  "i've always wanted to have a museum", she told me.

Of course I had all of the wrong equipment with me and no tripod.  I started to shoot and shoot and shoot.  She was thrilled by my curiosity and encouraged it.  She took me back to her studio.  I would like you to take something with you.  Something to remember me by. On the table was a bowl of rocks that she had collected over a lifetime.  Please take one.  It was a different type of Holy Communion that day. I took a salmon pink stone and placed it in my pocket.  It has since travelled with me everywhere.

Change is not easy.  Sometimes we change because we have to.  It's so much better, when we choose to change so that we can grow.  My pink stone reminds me of how I changed and what I felt as it happened.