YouTube: Peace Through Change
Audio: Peace Through Change
Of course we’re all familiar with the famous line from The Sound of Music: “When a door closes, a window opens.” Many of us found inspiration in these words, for they offer hope in our moments of despair. When one way is apparently being blocked, another is opening.
It is equally comforting to know that the “window” is something as close as your own mind. The “door” in the analogy represents a known path, a way, a certain state of affairs that we have grown accustomed to. We have come to know that the nature of life is change, yet when change occurs, when a familiar door closes, we are prone to fall into bouts of fear and uncertainty as to the outcome of our future.
It is at such times that the creative aspect of the mind kicks in. In his book, The Edinburgh Lectures, Thomas Troward wrote, “The individual’s subjective mind is his own innermost self, and its first care is the maintenance of the individuality of which it is the foundation.” There is, in you, a built in wisdom that knows how to navigate through the fog of uncertainty. It is your “innermost self,” which is the direct offspring of Infinite Mind, God. Though you do not always perceive it, this aspect of your mind goes to work immediately on new challenges that arise. It’s like a beacon vessel traveling before you in a foggy reef, signaling to nudge right or nudge left to avoid the coral protrusions that lay just below the surface.
I once met a woman whose husband, seven years ago, was killed in an accident while riding a horse. She said, “That was the darkest moment in my life.” She recently met someone and a whole new life has opened for her, a life of which she can only speak through genuine tears of gratitude. She did not cling to her loss or her grief. She moved through it, and in the process she became willing to open her mind to a whole new set of possibilities.
You may not relish this idea, but you are most alive in your moments of uncertainty. The vigor of youth rekindles in your heart. The portals of creativity reopen in your mind, allowing you to think outside the box of appearances. If you are currently reeling from a closed door, begin now to affirm that your mind is open to new possibilities. Let go of what is past, knowing that something even better is opening for you now.
J Douglas Bottorff 
A door is closing for me on a long friendship…well, not completely, since it will be kept ajar by our ability to maintain communication. A good friend is moving hundreds of miles away and we are both too old to just pick up and drive or fly somewhere, not that I’d WANT to. At my age, I will probably have to be dragged through any window that opens, but we’ll see what happens. 🙂
It’s good that you’ll be able to stay in touch. Windows come in all forms, and long friendships do not end. So you still have your friend and all those wonderful qualities that make up friendship.