A lesson on impermanence

For years I have tried to fight off the shroud of impermanence in my own life, which in turn has led me down a path of frustration and built up anger. Although I have always known that impermanence is the only permanent thing in this world, I tried to ignore it hoping that it would not touch me. Of course this thinking is misguided and perilous, but it seems that the human nature, specifically the ego, fights its harder as you near the summit of understanding. Although, I've come a long way on that journey, I've still much further to go. However, lately as I've more closely aligned myself with the universe and in turn have struggled less, I've slowly been able to lose the grasp that impermanence has had over me. This was especially true on a recent weekend in which my usual reaction over difficulty was replaced with a relaxed and distant reaction which surprised even me.



I won't bore you with the details, but I was finishing a project on my car that I had been putting off for weeks. As I started my work, I could tell immediately that it was not going to go well or according to plan (isn't that the truth with everything?). There were scratches involved, drilling, and even an incident with the keys being locked in the trunk. Rather than panic and start worrying about damage or inconvenience, I kept reminding myself that regardless of the outcome my life would be fine and that material things can always be replaced. A year or so ago I would have been stressing out and my tension would have made the situation drastically worse. However in this case, my calmness and big picture view of the situation helped me overcome the obstacles and succeed in my task.



It is so easy to annotate every single bump or scratch our possessions get over the course of us possessing them. That used to be me. When you take that perspective, your possessions end up possessing you and you end up living a life of neurosis and addiction to quick fixes. There is an alternative to this though, which can lead you down a road of peace. We all know that the things we are lucky enough to have, will eventually be lost, stolen, will break, or just won't work anymore. Using this realization, rather than logging the incidents in which this happens, we can do the opposite and be thankful for another lesson in impermanence. Remember, no matter what your spiritual beliefs may be, we all know that we cannot take anything with us to the grave. In my case, when I scratched my car I understood that eventually my car will be scratched with my help or without it. Instead of frustration, I was just thankful in a silly sort of way, for another lesson in impermanence. Try this in your life when things go wrong and I bet you'll start taking ground back from the things that own you. Life is too short to worry about silly things.