You know, I believe in the zen of change, in the necessity of it and the inevitability of it, too. And usually, because of that belief, I'm a happy person. A really happy person. People tell me that it always makes them feel better just being around me. It's not anything that I consciously do, of course. It's all in their minds, if you ask me. But what the heck ... I'm having one of my bad days, so I'll grasp at any straw.

Bad days don't happen to me often. Something really major has to occur in my life for me to get knocked off balance. Something has to ROCK MY WORLD. I'm always the one with the wise words, you know, about how everything happens exactly as it should, even the things that we perceive as negative. Tao teaches us that change is not bad or good. It is simply change. Feeling a necessity to label it as one or the other is what throws us. And I try to live my life according to that philosophy. In so doing, I continually find that 100% of the time the change is always as it should be.

Looking back, we can see how total devastation was necessary so that something new could manifest. Does not the caterpillar perish so that the butterfly may be born? Does not the tadpole become the frog? The acorn become the mighty oak? All we need do to understand the Way of Life is to take a look around us, in Mother Nature's great classroom, and rejoice and celebrate in the eternal cycling of life. "Never one door closes but another opens" ... I've heard it a million times, and it's true. So true. My mind knows that. If only I could sell it to my heart.

It is during times like these that I look for inspiration to my friend the spider. You may remember me talking about that spider not long ago - he and I had a small territorial dispute? Well, his entire life is dedicated to rebuilding. That's all he does, day after day. But you don't see him throwing any temper tantrums or going around moping and crying in his beer, big alligator tears rolling down his cheeks. No sirree. Mr. Spider doesn't have the time or inclination for that nonsense. When his web is destroyed he just builds another one, and he doesn't fool around about it. There are flies to be caught, child, and you are wastin' your time moanin' and groanin' over what a pretty pattern you spun last time.

Sometimes in life we are called on to make hard choices. We are asked to say "yes" to one thing and "no" to another, when we really want both. Other times we have choice thrust upon us and we don't have any say in the matter. We just have to figure out how to live with the change. Adjust. Go with the flow. Look on the bright side. Learn something from it. Let the pain carve deeply into your soul so that you can learn to contain enormous amounts of joy.

The pain is hell and the joy is heaven.