Appreciating Change and Contrast

The winning slogan for the last presidential election was for change and of course the repeated mantra over and over was, "Yes We Can!" It sounds simple enough but as we all know, change is not a simple action. In order to change, we have to dig up a certain amount of courage and faith-the courage to follow through with the action of change and the faith that it will indeed bring forth the things we want in America. It was easy for me to get on the change bandwagon and although I have been a bit discouraged at times with the very slow progress, I still believe we need to march forward toward the goals and ideals of making this country better. Sometimes what I have a problem with is contrast; the large dark, treacherous gulf between the ideas of different sides. I believe this is caused by fear. Then when you add the fear mongers, you get people really excited and often so with negatively embellished and incorrect information. We have seen this in the health care battle. People can get extremely worked up when they are passionate for change and when they are fearful of it. Fear is a negative word and when it enters our mind, it is an opportunity to examine why and to move toward what we passionately desire not what we fear. This is why contrast is good. If we never saw anything bad, violent or unsavory or heard anything different from our opinion then how is it we could ever live in appreciation? As our country moves toward change and as I personally walk that path, I hope we all do so with appreciation of it and with the goal to make the world and our own lives better. I believe we need to remember, change is about living courageously- not fearfully!