Impermanence.

I was on my way home from the store the other day; It was my favorite time of day when the sun began setting, giving the world around me an orange glow. I felt happy and grateful to be present.

My thoughts turned inward and suddenly I began contemplating the impermanence of life.

I felt a knot of fear turn my stomach but consoled my worries with the rationale that all forms of life are impermanent and impermanence is just as much an opportunity as it is a disservice.

I began reflecting on my past. Watching my memories play out before me.

I thought about my first love, which brought a smile to my face despite our less than desirable ending. My smile soon faded as the limitations of my child-like brain crowded me with sadness; disheartened to comprehend that someone I’d known so vividly could become so estranged.

I thought about my new love, how happy I felt and how lucky I’d been to stumble upon someone so rare. This feeling too, faded and a sharp pang of heartache struck my chest as I applied the concept of impermanence to us, both individually and together.

We spend much of our lives attempting to map and plan our path. We aim for a semblance of stability, neglecting to acknowledge that the very essence of live is to be in flux. And these ideas are nothing new. Impermanence is a major component of Buddhist teachings and the first pillar in The Three Basic Facts of Existence.

“Change or impermanence is the essential characteristic of all phenomenal existence. We cannot say of anything, animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic, “this is lasting”; for even while we are saying this, it would be undergoing change. All is fleeting; the beauty of flowers, the bird’s melody, the bee’s hum, and a sunset’s glory.”

There is no solution, because there is no problem. Fighting the inevitable is merely cause for suffering. The only way to avoid hopelessness is to embrace change — to see it as an opportunity for experimentation and to learn from it.

Everything passes on, that is the overwhelming reality of life, but death is not “The End”. Death is both “The End” and the beginning.

As we journey through our existence we experience both life and death with the passing of each moment. Circumstances will change, people will come and go, but nothing will ever truley be lost.

Ideas, moments, people, feelings, they all live on somewhere within our hearts, memories and everywhere in between.

Use your memories to serve you. Use them to reflect or simply be warmed by the visions of your past.

Put them away when they no longer evoke joy, or become a hindrance to your ultimate hapiness. Put them away when you no longer need, nor want to remember.

Because I know that I cannot keep things in my possession; I cannot hold the arms of my lover forever, I must cherish what I do have, in this moment, in this body and this place. I must feel elated with gratitude knowing that these moments along with any feelings of suffering, will — in time — pass.

“The world is afflicted by death and decay. But the wise do not grieve, having realized the nature of the world.” ~The Buddha

“The End.”