This too will pass
Just yesterday, I was walking and talking with a friend. She then turned to me and a flood of tears poured down her face. Tears afterall are the words the heart cannot say. She (let's call her Jill) couldn't express her loss of her 2 dogs last year, the reality that she needed to donate their dog bowls now and let them emotionally go.
Eastern Wisdom
My ears are tuned to "hear" suffering and connect it to it's source. Loss is a natural process. It hurts. It typically takes time to process and allow space for healing (per stages of Kubler Ross). I also know deeply that understanding the nature of reality that "this too will pass" is helpful as well as understanding that everything comes and goes. Somehow our hardwired western minds want to believe that things are forever - this car, this boyfriend, my bracelet, my best friend and house. But the reality is the more we can joyfully embrace the nature of things constantly moving into and out of our lives with ease and grace - the happier we are.
Such a saying comes from life experience. I have lost many things (including people I loved dearly) but connecting to a thinking that understands this process has helped me. It has pulled me out of the illusion that things are forever - or even that I will last forever but underscores in me the nature and value of every living being.
Teaching our Tots
And of course the reason I feel so compelled to write this is because it is not only in learning such a truth ourselves but teaching it to our kids that has the power to make a profound impact in their lives. In my book, 365 Perfect Things to Say to Your Kids, I have a saying titled "Coming and Going" that goes like this:
(186) Shirts come and go! My favorite shirt got spots of paint - so I had to let it go. Soon I got another that was from my mother. I loved it even more. But I learned to let things in and let things go. It makes for an easier life and smoother show.
It is a little teaching that begins to plant the seeds of the deeper nature of reality in our children that things come and go - and nonattachment - or ease with the coming and going is the most powerful way to understand the nature of life. In other words, enjoy the present fully as things flow into and out of your life.
Seeds of Strength
So my wish is that you enjoy planting such messages into your child - and use tools like my recent book, 365 Perfect Things to Say to Your Kids, as an easy-to-use way to playfully and purposefully guide your child into their best life. Happy Spring (well, almost)!
* The principle of non-attachment and the nature of life can be studied in more depth through various buddhist texts but this is a simplified explanation so more and more children can begin understanding life in a skillful way.
