I burst into tears when I first watched this video.

I couldn’t really figure out whether I cried because it was beautifully funny and touching, or if I saw the adult version of me in that little girl.

You see, she’s crying because she doesn’t want her brother to grow up. In other words, the little girl is resisting change.

She knows if he grows up, he’ll no longer be that cute.

Aren’t we all that little girl in a way or another?

On some level, we’re all resisting change—and below the sheets, when no one is watching, we’re crying as loudly as this vulnerable toddler.

She wanted her brother to stay a baby. We want everything to stay the same.

Unconsciously, we all want to wake up the next day, finding everything the same way it was the night before.

While I watched this little girl resisting change, I began to realize that we are creatures of habit who love to settle. We despise the different—the new.

I remember I was nearly that girl’s age when my family moved from the house I was born and raised in. I cried my eyes out for nights, as I wanted to stay in the old house where everything was known and comfortable. In no time, I fell in love with our new place, and I was actually glad that we changed from the old one. Today, I can barely recall what the house I was born in was like.

As Dzongsar Khyentse says: “Change is inevitable. There is no degree of probability or chance involved. If you feel hopeless, remember this and you no longer will have a reason to be hopeless, because whatever is causing you despair will also change.”

And this stands true to everything else in our lives—whatever is causing us despair will also change. Eventually we will get used to the new, just like we did with the old. Resisting change is only an automatic reaction that happens when the familiarity of our present moment is threatened.

Once we understand this, we can give change a chance.

Let’s believe that our little brother will be just as cute when he grows up, and we won’t have to deal with the pain of impermanence ever again. Instead, we’ll be eager to actually experience it.

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Author: Elyane Youssef

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina

Photo: Screenshot