Belief in Change

The other day a friend was talking with me about knowledge we glean from books. We read the books and we understand the truth of what we read but we do not change life's patterns to reflect what we have learned. She believed that we did not change even with the knowledge because we did not believe we could.

I thought about it for a minute and thought of dishes in the sink. We know we should wash the dishes. We have read all the books and explanations about how healthy it is to clean up those dishes and even knowing this - it is easy to shine on all the knowledge and walk away from the work. We know clean dishes will make us feel good, keep us healthy and give us pleasure and we may still walk away, leaving them to worry about, fret about and wish the job was done.

Thinking of the image of the dirty dishes needing change and cleaning them seems much like cleaning up our way of being in the world. Both are actions to remove the debris from the past, both are work. The things we can learn to change the patterns in our lives which may appear as living in the past, dreaming of the future or listening to the ego's rantings will only manifest if we practice and do the work. The reward of the work is change. Clean dishes are a good thing just as being present for our lives is a way of being.

I said to my friend "... it seems that though we know with our intellect that these truths will set us free yet it isn't until our heart knows the truth that we take action and work with the energy of the heart to make it happen."

We both laughed and later as I was leaving she asked with a smile "Are you going to do those dishes?"

What a wonderful life.