“Sunsets (and sunrises), like childhood, are viewed with wonder. Not just because they are beautiful, but because they are fleeting.”
~ Richard Paul Evans
I love waiting for that exact moment that the sun will break the horizon, or in today’s case, a bank of clouds. There is always peace in that fleeting moment ….
Yesterday, I was asked to reflect a bit on impermanence and attachment. I was writing for my other blog – a fairly lengthy entry as I had quite a bit on my mind – when suddenly the wordpress database came back with an error and would not refresh. Ugh. While I know that my blog auto-saves every few minutes or so, what if my 1,000+ words were just lost? Fortunately, they weren’t. But if they were, would I decide to re-write them? Could I even, as much of what I wrote was simply streaming thoughts? The past is like that … Fictional, changing, depending on how we choose to view it.
I was thinking this morning of those zen sand mandalas. The monks create beautiful pieces of art with sand or stone, which often take weeks, only to be destroyed, with the sand carried away to a river. I’m thinking I need to start one of those type of projects, in order to become less attached to my art, in whatever form it may be. Sand castles might be good 🙂
As I searched for a quote on impermanence today, I came across a beautiful contemplation by Sam Harris ….
We do not know what awaits each of us after death, but we know that we will die. Clearly, it must be possible to live ethically–with a genuine concern for the happiness of other sentient beings–without presuming to know things about which we are patently ignorant. Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person you will pass in the street today, is going to die. Living long enough, each will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?
Let’s choose kindness today (and I’m sorry for all the times that maybe I haven’t been so kind … sometimes I too just need a little reminder of my own impermanence )
