Who Moved My Cheese?

It's funny, I keep resolving to sit down and blog...but life has a way of upending even the best laid plans. How we deal with those instances is what counts. Some people adapt and go with the flow. Others cross their arms, stomp their feet and are generally unpleasant because life dared to alter their plans. Rather than work it out and figure out a new or varied plan, they waste time moping around and moaning woah is them, the whole world is against me and crashing to my feet because one little thing didn't go exactly as I saw it in my head.

What such person forgets is that change is part of the beauty of life. Without change, life would become incredibly dull and mundane. Sometimes the best experiences are brought about by the unexpected. You have to learn to roll with the punches rather than stand like a stone statue to be knocked down at the slightest inconvenience or deviation. In all things we have a choice, though sometimes we may not see it. We have the choice to act or react, we have the choice of attitude and approach. We have the choice in how to respond to change.

It reminds me of a book I read for a multicultural ed class once called Who Moved My Cheese. It's really a charming little tale with a character and personality lesson behind. I suppose you could even call it a moral lesson, in some senses, but that COULD be stretching it, just a bit. I highly recommend everyone read this book, it's very short, won't take an hour, if I remember correctly. (the link takes you to a summary that's really quite good)

I'll admit that sometimes I react to situations. But I am generally a very happy, positive person. I don't necessarily like change, but I've come to accept that it's a necessary part of life and growing up. Some change is easy, some is hard. Some can take moments, some takes months or years. But it still happens. I don't understand people who come completely unglued at the slightest hitch in their plans. I honestly do not get how they can function in this ever changing world. The unnecessary stress alone would be enough to send me crawling under my covers, never to be seen again. It frustrates me when people flip on the drop of a dime when something doesn't go exactly their way. It's behavior I would expect and even tolerate from a young child, but not from grown ups. It's extremely frustrating and maddening to deal with, because when people get this way it is nearly impossible to reason or even get through to them, yet they always bring the issue to you. And it's nearly impossible to resolve until their tempers have cooled because you can't make a square peg fit into a round hole of the same size. It simply doesn't work.