Saturday, November 17, 2018

Change Takes Time

Elder Ulisses Soares opened his most recent talk by talking about the Amazon River, which, it turns out, is more like two rivers than one:
My home country of Brazil is very rich in natural resources. One of them is the famous Amazon River, one of the largest and longest rivers in the world. It is formed by two separate rivers, the Solimões and Negro. Interestingly, they flow together for a number of miles before the waters blend, due to the rivers having very different origins, speeds, temperatures, and chemical compositions. After several miles, the waters finally blend together, becoming a river different than its individual parts.
Elder Soares then went on to speak about how unity can result in increased strength, but I want to focus the two rivers of which the Amazon River is composed. According to Elder Soares,those two rivers remain distinct flows of water until miles after the two rivers meet. Despite being in physical contact with each other for a long time, it still takes a long time for the two rivers to fully blend together. This particular factoid seemed surprising to me; however, as a general rule, this phenomenon is totally normal. Change takes time. Just as it takes time for grass to grow and for seasons to change, it takes time for rivers to blend. Some changes take longer than others, and the time these changes take may vary for a variety of reasons, but all changes take at least some time.

That includes changes within ourselves. I believe that all of us can think about something about ourselves that we would like to change. Unfortunately, those changes cannot come instantaneously, but fortunately, we do have some time. It can be frustrating when progress seems slow and especially when we don't seem to be making any progress at all, but change happens over time, especially as we try to keep working toward that change.

So, if you're trying to bring about some change in your life, keep trying, but be patient. Change doesn't always happen quickly, but it does happen. It's only a matter of patience, perseverance, and time.

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