Transition metal

   Life contains change, in fact it is something we can always rely on, from the falling of the leaves to the hair on our head. Change is in our blood, in the air, change is now. How we cope with and prepare for change can be a defining character for many people and something I always try to be aware of. Change is everywhere.
   Mercury is cool, it is a transition metal. What this means is that it is a sort of metal, sort of nonmetal; it is a element of both traits. Believe it or not, we become mercury at some points in our lives. Everyone has times where change occurs in our most basic aspects of life. Like mercury, we feel neither here nor there, metal nor nonmetal; a transition occurs in our lives. We grow up, grow old and grow out of many things we saw as staples in our lives. We move from house to house, and sometimes from passion to passion. Our jobs will not be the same from when we are 16 to 36, and our parents will not always make us dinner.
   Being in a transition can be daunting to say the least. What we thought we could hold in our hands now slips through our grasp. We may go back to behavior that we were once used to, only to find it is no longer there, yet see the new pieces in our lives are just as unreliable. As creatures of habits, this can be very disheartening for many of us, including myself. During these transition states, be it a lost job or new city, we can take refuge in ourselves. For no matter what change happens, stability can be found in ourselves. If the world was turned into a giant forest and every building destroyed, we would not be destroyed along with them, we could still find a new way to live even in the most extreme wave of change. Fortunately, no change this abrupt will happen in our lifetimes, but the analogy still sticks.
   I found myself in a transition state several days ago while moving into a new house. When I felt anxious or stressed I found a escape through breathing deeply, reading, centering myself. When I could see it was not me that was changing but my habitat, the heat of instability evaporated. The strength of finding inner peace can shine through any tough time, any dark cloud. For as much as things will change, we will always have we.