All Things Are Impermanent

Recently, on a Friday afternoon I went to a place where the 10 Mile River meets the sea. A couple of seals were warming themselves in the sun on a sandbar in the river as the tides pushed the ocean water towards them in rippling surges. In a conspicuous display of impermanence, the sand and river are different every time I visit this place. That particular day, I was in the middle of an online retreat on the Buddhist teachings on impermanence, emptiness, and interdependence. What does it mean that life is bound by and held in the principles of change and interdependence?

As many of you know, a few months ago a cat showed up in the woods here by the Refuge at Pudding Creek. Frightened and feral, he would let no one touch him. But time passes and everything changes. Tiger is now a house cat who prefers to sit by the fire and get pets rather than go outside to climb a tree or hunt a mouse.

Life touches us and changes us. At times it can be like the 20 foot waves crashing onto the cliffs during the recent storms. At other times it is like the lull at low tide where it seems like nothing is happening. Give yourself permission to be a verb rather than a noun and live in alignment with change. Give your family and friends permission to be different too. Maybe what someone said last year or last week or last hour has changed. Ask. Be curious. Give yourself, give others, the chance to be different.