Our deeds still travel with us from afar, And what we have been makes us what we are. —George Eliot—
Changing cities, countries, jobs, or partners can’t change what we are; that change only comes from within us,
From deep searching and redirection of our values and behaviors. Yet many of us blithly hope that a physical move will work a spiritual change. Still others trust in the delusion that a new relationship can transform the self that has developed slowly over our whole lives. If we like ourselves pretty well,
we can acknowledge our past. We’ll own the choices we made at this or that juncture, and we can see the results. But if we’re dissatisfied with how we’re doing, if we feel the need to change our lives, we must recognize that hard work will be involved, hard choices and some pain. Feeling the need is usually painful in itself. Often it means we’re ready for those hard choices, and much hard work is already going on, deep within. Only a little more spiritual housecleaning, absolute honesty about our motives, and we may accomplish what we seek to change. Wherever I am, in the twisting road of my life, is where I am meant to be.