Weaving Tapestries, Painting Pictures, Dreaming Dreams

I had written once about change and promised to continue, I have been pondering on change since the past few days. what brings change and how much control do we have over it.
Change comes into our lives due to many things but there are two main categories of change, change brought about by God, nature, or what you will call it and change brought about by man.

Change that is brought about by God is for the most predictable, not because we can predict what God is going to do but because most of it is ruled by certain laws of nature that pre-date humanity. God’s laws are neither fickle nor capricious and they hold everything in balance. Most things are held in cycles, the cycle of birth growth and death, the cycle of erosion, weathering and subduction, the cycles of rotations and revolutions of the Earth giving us days and seasons, the same of the moon which gives us the phases of the moon. Most of the Natural Phenomena can be studied because it has set laws and patterns which are governed by knowledge and wisdom and which hold true over eons of time. If it had all come accidentally together like many like to think, would it not have all ended in chaos. Why would the seasons follow one another for example, or why would would all the planets revolve in their own orbits without crashing into each other. Why would trees flower in spring after they had withered in winter?

The cycle of birth, growth and death holds true for all species including plants. What is unfortunate is that we do not reflect upon the amazing powers of the governing body which controls not just the ever expanding universe, but the smallest thing like providing sustenance to even the minute unicellular organisms. The changes that the natural world around goes through are so set and regular that we take them for granted and do not spend a single moment in reflecting how miraculous they are. If water would have been evaporated by the heat of the sun just once and formed a cloud and then come down as rain or if on feeling that rain a single seed buried deep within the ground would have germinated and a single tiny stem would have forced its way through the hard earth and had stood small but straight and tall, the whole world would have come to a standstill to witness this miracle but the miracles take place around us day in and day out and we, so used to them fail to look at them with the open mouthed amazement they deserve, fail even to reflect upon the one who has made such perfect laws and subjected everything in creation to obey those laws so perfectly. The very fact that order and not chaos reigns in Nature is the proof of a unique and mighty authority that creates and rules everything.
The thing that amazes me most is the change from living to non living and back to living as gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen, water vapour and nitrogen go from the atmosphere to being part of living things and then escaping back into the atmosphere. How living things break down and mix back into the earth and atmosphere from which they came as non living materials and then once more become part of another life cycle.

There are of course those changes, terrible changes, which are brought about by the forces of Nature, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, typhoons. These too for the most can be predicted, followed, and people know the seasons when the disastrous winds will blow or the what areas of earth are prone to earthquakes or what mountains are dormant or existing volcanoes. It has taken man a long time and centuries of observation to be able to comprehend the effects of the Natural forces, that is true, but he has been able to do it only because nature follows its laws and patterns. There are those changes which might come with a warning, or which might catch one unawares. Like illness or death, or loss due to unexpected events one is not prepared for.

On the other hand, man follows no such laws and set patterns. Therefore they are subject to the nature of the man who brings them about. A man can be ruled by foresight, wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, and bring about changes which will last for centuries. He can build buildings or bridges or places of worship or homes that will stand the test of time. He can respect the land and use it to grow food so that no one will starve. Man can bring about changes like discovering new places and settling down there in a way that respects both the land and any other people who have been previously occupying it. With respect for each other, the people old and new can teach each other what they know and become enriched in the process and enrich the land and protect it and its environment.

There are other changes too that man brings, these are unfortunately more common and as time goes on many parts of the Earth are paying huge prices for these. These are changes that directly affect people who are unknown strangers to the person responsible for bringing about the change. These are changes that destroy lives and land, pollute and destroy the environment, bankrupt people, bring civilizations to the edge of death and destruction. Changes which are brought about by greed and power seeking, by short sighted selfish goals, by fickleness and caprice. Changes that bring all kinds of pollution and diseases that result from that pollution. That destroy the environment by indiscriminate development for short term personal gain. That start wars and ethnic cleansing and make the world unsafe for people. There are people who, for their own power seeking, instigate and incite weak minded individuals, by using tools like nationalism, religion, casteism, tribal loyalties, etc, to spread war and terror. People blame religion for the spread of terror, but it is not religion that spreads hatred, but people who use it among other tools, to spread hatred to minds which cannot think for themselves, minds which may already be discontent with their lot and therefore are fertile soils for seeds of discord and destruction.

There are other harmful and destructive changes too that man brings about, changes which may affect smaller groups of people, changes which may send shock waves through a family, or a community, or even the world.
These changes can be a heartbreak that can shatter one life, or divorce that shatters a family, or something even more grievous like a person randomly shooting a group of strangers, or murder, kidnapping, rape, death or maiming as a result of accidents. Whether these things affect one person or a family or a community, the people who have been affected by it will never be the same again. Those who have read about it or watched it on television too, will be touched by its evil and will have its imprint on their consciousness forever.

There are those changes man brings though, which can also leave a permanent imprint on both the receiver and those who learn about it. These are the small and big kindnesses which people do for each other, either for those who they know or strangers. I never fail to be touched by the kindness of strangers and I try to be one of those strangers who spreads kindness and good will. This is one of the things that makes it possible for each one of us to wake up each day and go about our day with hope and a smile. it is in each of our hands to change someone’s life or just their day or even a few minutes with an act of caring and kindness, lets not stint from doing it