As I sat meditating one morning, I opened my eyes to gaze out the window for a few moments and noticed a small cloud located in the center of my view. As I watched, the cloud moved imperceptibly, making its way across my field of vision without seeming to move at all. I only noticed that it was moving because it slowly changed its position in relation to one of the large buildings I see from my window.

This got me to thinking about change and the many guises it takes as it moves through our lives. Sometimes, change comes with a bang – shifting things in big ways immediately, as it does when an earthquake or other natural disaster strikes, or when a loved one dies unexpectedly, or when we meet someone and suddenly our life isn’t the same as it was a moment before. At other times, change comes into our lives unnoticed until something shifts and we look back and recognize all the small signs that things were changing outside our conscious awareness, as when we suddenly discover that we have aged, or we look around and notice that we’re no longer involved in pursuits we used to love, that our tastes and sensibilities have shifted, somehow.

I appreciated the little cloud from my morning’s meditation, as it reminded me that change is happening even when it appears not to be. That got me to thinking about all the places where any of us might feel stuck when, in reality, things are shifting and changing below our level of awareness. Sometimes, for example, we may feel stuck when we’re actually preparing for a shift at unconscious levels – as when we learn new things we don’t even realize we’re learning and these new things lead us to make different choices and engage in different activities.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to notice the small changes that move through your life and to be aware that they have a place in a larger pattern of growth, development, and the natural shifts that come with our passage through time. The focus of this experiment can become an exploration of your willingness to acknowledge and embrace the change that inevitably exists as part of your life’s journey. Are you comfortable with this, or does it cause you distress to recognize that – even when things seem to stay the same – the one thing you can count on is that they *will* change?

Our relationship to change plays a large part in how easily we move through the twists and turns that life brings our way. As you work with this week’s experiment, give yourself permission to be aware of those places where you fend off, deny, or otherwise don’t accept the ubiquitous presence of change.