Nothing endures but change

So much self-reflection in the midst of my work and general busy-ness has brought me back to a key point from Buddhism that I had recently neglected to remember: all things in the universe are constantly changing; nothing stays the same.

In the past few weeks I have been suffering because of this fact; how things are so different from the way things were in the past. The youthful sense of hope about the future; the meaningful and productive friendships, the good old days of the past--were all things I felt I had lost through the passage of time. I felt because things had changed, I had lost something, that a part of my life was empty/missing, and I was focusing on trying to regain what I felt was no longer there.

But remembering this simple concept that change is eternal, I realized another aspect of Buddhist practice, that because change is constant, we have the opportunity to make things better; rather than simply trying to recreate elements of the past, we have the chance to make things even better than before, and work from this moment onward to creating a world, a community, a network of friendship that we want to have in our lives.

In many ways, rather than being unhealthily-attached to the past, yearning for what was--reminding myself of this idea that nothing endures but change has helped me cherish what I have gained in the past, and nurture in the present that which I value the most. Rather then dwelling on what may have changed in the past few years, the feeling of appreciation and hope for the future has reawakened. Instead of pining for what was, I'm hopeful about the present and the future that can be.