Celebrating the Temporary

When you grasp that every­thing in this world is tem­po­rary you are free to live fully. All attempts at per­ma­nent secu­rity are an illu­sion. At best we have the moment. The vast major­ity of those moments are very good. The lesser ones pass. Life is a river. It is in con­stant motion. You can either go with it or exhaust your­self try­ing to swim upstream. Enjoy the ride. Learn as you go. What you expe­ri­ence is always a lit­tle bit novel. The harder you try to con­trol it the more out of con­trol you become.

This moment will pass — as will the next. In the pass­ing of these moments you will notice an inner observer that is eter­nal. Iden­tify with it. It is here for the soul’s edu­ca­tion. All mate­r­ial con­cerns are tem­po­rary. They come and they go. What remains is that one sense of expe­ri­ence that matures from stage to stage. It is intan­gi­ble but more real than what­ever you are touch­ing at this moment.

Once you dis­cover the tem­po­rary, you are free to pur­sue all within your grasp: an edu­ca­tion, a career, a fam­ily, an adven­ture — an eter­nal life. If you ever try to stay in one place, you will become a fool. There is no stop­ping. There is only life in motion.

C.S. Lewis said that hell is a place where noth­ing ever changes. It is death. It is the end of the road. Life ceases. All things stay the same. It is the oppo­site of what you are expe­ri­enc­ing right now. It is totally pre­dictable. It is totally secure. It goes nowhere.

On the other hand you have life: a body that changes; sea­sons that are ever in tran­si­tion; winds that shift; social forces that mean­der along; flow­ers that go from ugly seeds to beau­ti­ful blos­soms in a sin­gle short season.

You are alive. The stages are tem­po­rary but the expe­ri­ence is eternal.