The security of change
There have a been a few changes and upsets recently in my life. Nothing crazy or too bad, but definitely unexpected. It's reminded me to consider the concept of safety which we naturally gravitate towards.
In an ever changing world, security lies in fluidity not rigidity, an ability to shift and adapt. Transferring your current skills and knowledge to new environments. The more set up and stationary you are the more you will be affected by the inevitable changes of nature. The nature of the world is change, you may have something now and it may be gone tomorrow, but that's ok.
This piece by Alan Watts hits the nail on the head:
'There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity… If I want to be secure, that is, protected from the flux of life, I am wanting to be separate from life. Yet it is this very sense of separateness which makes me feel insecure. To be secure means to isolate and fortify the “I,” but it is just the feeling of being an isolated “I” which makes me feel lonely and afraid… To put it still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet.'