Everything of this world has a beginning and an end. A birth and a death. There is creation and destruction. A building up and a tearing down. Triumph and disaster.
We see it in the seasons, as winter blossoms into spring, spring flourishes into summer, summer matures into autumn, and autumn fades into winter.
We see it in our three-score-years-and-ten (and more), as baby becomes toddler, child, teen, adult–a body that is born, ages and dies.
We see it when we welcome a pet into the home, knowing its lifespan is much less than our own, but loving it fiercely, regardless.
We see it in cut flowers that bloom and fade.
We see it as we wake and sleep.
We see it in the tide’s ebb and flow.
Everything of this world comes and goes.
Yet, we have eternity embedded in our heart. We know our very essence does not come and go.
First, we hold tight, we mourn, we resent each ending. We issue proclamations on social media, condemning the passing of time. We try to build a legacy, to be remembered, to make a difference (all honourable activities).
Why? All that is sought is happiness. A happiness so complete that nothing can be taken away, and nothing can be added.
Eventually, it becomes startlingly clear that the comings and goings of the world, these temporary appearances, were never going to bring permanent, complete happiness. And more, that complete happiness is causeless—we don’t need to seek a new, more reliable, cause.
So, maybe, just maybe, we release our grasp on the sands of time running through our fist—we never mastered time anyway. We open our eyes to the happiness that always was. To a beauty beyond the senses, to a truth beyond rhetoric, to a love beyond the personal.
And we see beauty, truth and love everywhere. In the first snowdrop of spring, in deep depression, in the smile of a new-born, in the dying days of a friend, in dirty dishwater, in harsh judgement, in a grain of rice. Naturally, preference will tend to some and away from others, pleasure over pain, hope over hurt. But, steadily and reliably, beauty, truth and love become apparent as the essence of all experience, of the knowing of ourself. Happiness: both peace and joy.
The happiness we are has no beginning and no end.
With Love,
Sara
