“Everything flows, and nothing stays.”
“You can’t step twice into the same river.”
Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was part of the Persian Empire. He saw the world as constantly in flux, changing even as it stayed the same.
Good news and bad news
Everything changes. All the time. So, if you’re frustrated with your kids, don’t worry, they will grow up fast. The things they’re doing right now that make you crazy will be gone before you know it! I mean, sometimes it’s hard to look at how cute and snuggly they are and know that in two blinks of your eyes, this time will be gone. But the good news and bad news is that the situation at work that has you so stressed, or at home, or with your sister or partner or mother, is going to change. Ready or not.
I am a journaler and so I can go back over what I’ve written at any given point in my life to remember how it went. I write a lot about being ready for the next season. Ready for change. Ready to move to the next place, and on to the new adventure. I also write a lot about how stressed I am that all the elements of my life seem to have been tossed up into the air. About how I crave normalcy and rest and even a little statio from time to time.
I have so many moving parts that make up my life. As we all do. There are moments in time when nearly all the pieces are working smoothly and me and my people are humming along like a well-oiled machine. Those moments are bliss. But the amount of time they last is hardly longer than a couple of breaths. In those moments though, in those breaths, all is well. And the world is as it should be.
In that moment, all is well
I have found a place where I can be fully present, fully grateful. Fully glad. Even as I am flowing along with all that is also flowing along around me. In this space I am aware of my body and the energy that is animating me. My blood running through all the parts to my fingers and toes. My heart doing its job. This is a space where I can see and hear very clearly. The space is right now. This breath I’m breathing in, and then breathing out is creating a moment, right now. And here I am present, right now.
And this is how I’m learning to reconcile with the movement of time and my nostalgia. With my sweet little children becoming sweet, grown men. With my young parents approaching ages beyond what my grandparents enjoyed. This is how I’m acknowledging my grief as I’m packing to move away from the city of my ancestors to my new town. This is how I’m agreeing to participate in the flowing and changing that defines all life here for us Earthlings. This breath in, right now. This breath out, right now. In this moment, all is well.
So if you love change and the newness that it brings, or if you hold on very tightly to moments that feel good and you want them to last forever, let’s learn to breathe together. And let’s be friends~
Tears.
Ohhh, thank you for sharing 💛