Nothing is Permanent

Nothing is Permanent In the circumstances that we currently find ourselves, under the shadow of this Coronavirus, we are learning first hand that nothing is permanent. Everything is changing from moment to moment. It's unnerving to see that many of the businesses, jobs, and lives we once took for granted are gone. It is just a scientific fact that belief in permanence is only a delusion.

There is another way to think about this impermanence or lack of solidity, though. This scary impermanence can help us to live more meaningful lives, grow deeper relationships, and experience life more fully. How many parents have experienced the remorse of "empty nester" syndrome after the kids grew up and moved out? That yearning for the halcyon days when the kids were small, and it always seemed sunny and happy. Yet perhaps you didn't fully appreciate each and every moment back then. Maybe this sense of remorse is really just grief over things left undone, and moments that did not have our full attention.

Let's live life fully present, one moment at a time. Appreciate your child, partner, relative, pet, as if you may not see them tomorrow. There is a beautiful exercise you can practice when you are angry or disillusioned with your friend or loved one: breathe in deeply and imagine how you and this person will be one-hundred years from now. What will your anger or disillusionment matter then?

Your unhappy feelings will ease, bringing a different perspective of the present moment and for those you love.