I hate change!

Unless, it is my idea!

If it is someone else's idea and it's been around for awhile, I might be able to consider it and adopt it as my own.

That's why I hated the idea of going to school until I had enough time considering how my older sister and brother did with it to decide that it was OK for me too.

That's why so many people are outraged with proposed Healthcare reform until they take the time to learn what might happen.

That's why I was skeptical about the idea that God had sent a new messenger for this day until I had about a year to study the Baha'i Faith and learn who Baha'u'llah was and consider for myself if I believed that He was who He said.

I cut myself off if I am unwilling to consider and learn about new ideas, no matter the source. If I cut myself off I am apt to become afraid, afraid of these new ideas, the loss of my old ideas, and the loss of familiar ways.

Loss creates an occasion of grief, which has five steps. Baha'u'llah wrote of journeys that traversed seven valleys or four valleys. Grief is like those journeys, you can get caught in one of the stages or move slowly through them one by one or cross them all in the blink of an eye.

Today, some have created great fear amongst the people. These people have passed through Denial and arrived at Anger. Anger is where they are residing. Why? Perhaps they refused to consider the new ideas and are caught clinging to the old ideas that are being swept away with the crumbling of the old world order. Angry people do things and say things that they later regret. But they do not stop the change.

Angry people do not stop to ask, "where are we going." Yet that is a very important question. The answer lies in the writings of Baha'u'llah, 'Abdul-Baha, Shoghi Effendi, and The Universal House of Justice. A study of this material is a journey, with many stages. Each person experiences the journey their own way. But it is the process of independent investigation of truth that keeps the journey safe, safe for the world.