SATURDAY ENDS

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo . You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Grief does not change us. It reveals us. The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby- awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.

Why do we go away? So that we can come back. So that we can see the place we came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see we differently, too. Coming back to where we started is not the same as never leaving. They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.  If people refuse to look at you in a new light and they can only see you for what you were, only see you for the mistakes you've made, if they don't realize that you are not your mistakes, then they have to go.

When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny. Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time. I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.