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A Meditation on Impermanence

A loss in my life in this last week has deeply touched the most vulnerable places in my heart and brought home my awareness of impermanence.

How can we heal in times of loss and change? How can we find acceptance, grace and compassion in the face of impermanence? How do we stay vital, brave, alive and present when some part of us wants to shrink in fear and pain?

Pondering and meditating on impermanence and acceptance these past days has brought me to the poetry of Mary Oliver and Robert Frost, the writings of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and the insightful talks of Alan Watts. Their words have ripped down my defences, brought about healing and opened my heart to life as it is.

I wanted to offer you this meditation and contemplation on impermanence below. It’s a mix of poetry, words of wisdom and videos that are designed to invite you into deeper insight, opening and awareness.

Ideally, read or watch one thing and then close your eyes and take a few mindful breaths, just to let it sink in. Then move to the next.

I hope this meditation touches you and opens you in the way it has for me.

 

“Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.” 

― W. Somerset Maugham

…….

…….

“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”

Robert Frost

…….

…….

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” 

― Alan Watts

…….

…….

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
 
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
 
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
 
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
 
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
 
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
 
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
 
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
 
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.

―Mary Oliver

…….

 

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