Finding Happiness in the Impermanence of Life
How to Use Endings to Make Better Beginnings
Have you ever paid attention to the ending of things? Really paid attention to notice the exact ending of something. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Most things end with little fanfare. One thing ends and something else fills the space so quickly we forget to notice the first thing has gone.
This happens a lot with pain. Pain comes, and it feels as though it will last forever. The brain attaches to the feeling and catastrophizes it, believing it will get worse and worse until we just can’t take it anymore. The mind creates a whole story about the pain. Where did it come from? How did it get there? Did I bring it on myself? It’s so unfair that I’m experiencing this.
And then, the brain gets distracted, as it does, and suddenly, the pain is gone.
But when?
Exactly what point in time did it go away? How did it disappear? Did it dissolve into nothing? Did it build into one tall peak of pain and then crumble into tiny pieces on the way down? Did it just relocate to another point in the body?
These questions are unanswered because the mind was somewhere else, unaware of the pain and its comings and goings.
