Always Beginning
Understanding impermanence is one of the most powerful ways to live a fresh and wonderful life. Usually this has a negative connotation in the West, but I would argue it gives a tremendous amount of meaning, importance, and urgency to ones life.
If you only had one day left on Earth, what would you do? Would you go racing, buy a bunch of expensive items, and run for local office? Maybe. However, I am willing to bet many would prefer to be present in their relationships with loved ones, to make amends for grudges and mistakes, and enter into a state of love and appreciation that is not based on return on investment from the other.
It is important that we understand that all experiences are temporary because that is what gives life its vitality and beauty. If every experience were to linger on and on, it would become something to be collected and discarded.
Truly, every day and every moment can be a fresh start, if we are willing to let go of the psychological residue of the past and our constant projections into the future. Not tomorrow, not 10 minutes from now but now.
Guided journal questions:
What parts of the past do you want to keep a hold of, psychologically? Why?
What would your life look like if you allowed yourself to live freely and unburdened from the mind’s incessant movement?
-S.L