“IMPERMANENCE”

My towel rack fell down today.  All on its own.  What a great reminder of a natural law we all try to ignore.  Every day we strive to “get it all together”, put things in order, get things tidied up, finished, completed.  All well and good.  But the natural order of things is impermanence, change, even (dare I say it) aging and death.

When things happen, (like the towel rack falls down, or your favorite pair of shoes wears out, or your new SUV gets a dent), this is not a personal affront but a universal  movement towards dis-order, an example of the impermanence of all things.  So we can, and probably will, continue each day trying to get it all together, but we need to remember the larger context in which we exist.  Impermanence is not personal.  It’s universal.  And in that, we can feel just a little more compassion for our fellow beings.

And not be so surprised the next time the towel rack falls down.