The speed at which things can change in nature is incredible. The shift from the desolation of the winter to the massive explosion of energy in the spring, the heat of summer and the decay of autumn as it leads back into the stillness of winter once again. The universe is driven by cycles, some are large, some are small.
The way I visualise and understand this is that the universe itself is a closed system as what is not it, does not exist as far as we can ascertain. The means that the laws of energy hold true, it cannot be created or destroyed. What there is, there is and there is no way to change the amount.
Change itself is part of this system as movement requires energy, whether it be movement of suns, or thoughts it is the same, energy transfer. And this means, there is no loss, no cost at the universal level. It has a value of one and will always hold its value. It doesn't put in nor take away, it just moves, transfers, recycles.
But, all within that system are part of the whole and the value they hold in energy today can be shifted incredibly fast to the account of another system, it can change form and take up a new use case near instantaneously. Nature's way is about optimisation of the systems energy to become efficient so as to maximise options. It manages this through distribution to create a balance but the movement to do so means consequences of movement and it must negotiate again.
We are part of this system, we have no choice and we will suffer and benefit as energy flows in and away from our system. We try to mimic the system of optimisation and maximisation of options and adaptability but, we are flawed, we are imperfect and we cannot possible understand the complexity involved. Instead, we look to maximise the individual and often it is at the cost of others, a zero sum game.
A game we cannot hope to win though as what we take adds nothing to the universe, the value it holds will never shift from the 1. What does shift is the value of our system and our ability to manage the slice we hold. We can take energy from other systems to grow our own but within, we are just moving from one pocket to another, yours to mine, mine to yours. Is there value in this game or is it just busy work to occupy small minds as the transfer of energy from our system leaks into another. Eventually, a tipping point will be reached and our system will release its stored energy value completely and the universe will recycle it into something else entirely.
Seasons come and go and each of us is lucky to see eighty cycles or so, but to the universe it is just a blink and the life cycle of a galaxy is nothing more than a spore floating on the wind.