What if you don’t need to change anything?
What if you just need to transform it a little?
I’ve been thinking about this lately because of something quite ordinary — our dam. Transformed here by ChatGTP….oh my, if only it was that simple!
It’s been sitting there as part of our property. I’ve looked at it thousands of times. It’s beautiful, useful and familiar. Its Spring-fed. But recently I started looking at it differently. I can see its proper potential.
What if, instead of just being a dam, it became somewhere to swim? A natural swim pond. Somewhere to sit beside the water, cool off on a hot afternoon, float, breathe and enjoy the mountainous view that surrounds us.
The spring-fed dam itself doesn’t need to become something completely different. It’s already there. It already has what it needs.
It just needs a little reshaping…. beautifying with some love, and maybe a few boulders 😉
Any case, it made me wonder how often we do the opposite with ourselves.
We decide we need to change our body. Change our habits. Change our job. Reinvent ourselves. Become fitter, calmer, more organised, more adventurous, more something.
But perhaps there are times when we don’t need a whole new version of ourselves.
Maybe we just need to look at what’s already there and ask:
What could this become? We decide we need to change our body. Change our habits. Change our job. Reinvent ourselves. Become fitter, calmer, more organised, more adventurous, more something.
As we get older, I think that question becomes even more interesting.
There can be so much noise around ageing telling us what we should be trying to hold onto. Stay young. Look younger. Move like we used to. Get our old body back. I think we need to be grateful for the body we still have.
Anyway, I’m not sure I want my old life back.
I want to know what I can do with this one I’ve created.
Maybe movement changes. Perhaps running becomes walking, or a strong yoga practice becomes a gentler one. (That’s Me.) Maybe we stop exercising at the gym every day because we think we should and start moving in ways that actually feel good. Beach walks and badminton anyone??
Food can change too. Not another diet or a list of things we’re not allowed to eat, but becoming more interested in what nourishes us — and remembering that food is also pleasure, creativity and something wonderful to share with others. It most certainly shouldn’t be about control, no fun there! Just make your food naturally colorful – that’s good for you!
Even our social lives can be reshaped. We can meet new people, try something we’ve never done before, travel somewhere unexpected, learn a new skill or simply say yes a little more often.
None of that requires us to become someone else.
Perhaps transformation isn’t about tearing everything down and starting again.
Sometimes it’s simply taking what is already there, shifting the edges a little, making some room and seeing the possibilities we couldn’t see before.
A bit like an old dam becoming a beautiful place to swim.
And maybe that’s one of the nicest things about getting older.
We’re not finished. Nowhere near it… We’re just still becoming.
