To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

Henri Bergson

Each of us has the unlimited capacity to change, grow and express our brilliance. Spirit reminds us that if we keep doing things the way we’ve always done them, we’ll continue receiving the results we’ve always gotten. But by surrendering our thoughts, perceptions and patterns to a power greater than us, we enlist the assistance to redesign our lives, cross the bridge from fear to love and become agents of miraculous change.

Spring and summer abound with nature's growth and is a wonderful time to contemplate what we most need to change in our lives. It’s a season to imagine infinite possibilities, to stretch our imagination beyond what we’ve known, to reach beyond our comfort zones. People do change. Isn’t that a relief? I remember one of the coldest and most depressing things I ever heard was from a former boss who firmly believed “People do not change.” Well, if that we’re true, then we would all be in trouble. Seasons change, our bodies change and we can change if we choose to do so. Mary Manin Morrissey once stated, “If you're traveling down life's highway and take a 10-degree turn, there's not much change. But if you keep moving steadily in the new direction, by the time a month or year has passed, you will find yourself in a completely different place from where you began.”

Change begins with self-honesty and being willing to surrender. And the true power of lasting change begins with the feminine. For within the feminine aspect of us all, exists the space where we consciously open, surrender and receive. The yin, being the feminine attitude, represents the forces of openness and receptivity. In Christianity, Mary symbolizes the divine feminine within us; she opens herself, surrenders and is impregnated by the masculine forces of love. When we open ourselves to higher guidance and express the love inherent within us, we cannot help but change for the better. In the book The Gift of Change, Marianne Williamson writes, “...until we make that breakthrough in ourselves, there will be no fundamental breakthrough in the world. The world we see reflects the people we've become and if we do not like what we see in the world, we must face what we don't like in ourselves. Having done so, we will move through our personal dark to the light that lies beyond. We will embrace the light and extend the light. And as we change, the world will change with us.”

What are you ready to change? You don’t need to know how to change; you only need to be willing. A Course in Miracles reminds us, “You can stretch your hand and reach to Heaven.” We are not healed alone nor do we change on our own. In fact, it is arrogant to think that we do. Rather, we need only be willing to admit what is not working in our lives and surrender to Spirit our attachment to outcome. The rest will be taken care of. If you have doubt that you can change, look back over your life and see how far you’ve come. You’re not the same person you were ten years ago, one year ago or even one month ago, for that matter. And neither is anyone else.

“Charity,” as a holy concept, means being willing to see someone more evolved than they currently appear. Or, in other words, it means being willing to see the light and love in someone even when they are not expressing it. Charity means having faith. Charity requires having trust. For if you are willing to let go of what you’ve known, of what has been “comfortable,” your limiting patterns will be released and transformed for your higher good.

Our journey here is an inner one, one that takes us inward where we must face ourselves. As we look honestly and with self-compassion at what we need to change, we enlist the angelic forces of love and healing. We are not alone in how we change, for there is always a power that is within us that helps us cross over the bridge of that leads us to be the people we are meant to be.

Laura V. Hyde is the Spiritual Leader of the Unity Church of Five Cities in Central Coast California, a national author and speaker. Laura does spiritual counseling, is the author of “Gifts of the Soul” and “The Intimate Soul,” a facilitator of “A Course in Miracles” and the host of a show on Public Television. www.laurahyde.com