I spent ages here fiddling around with a poem I wrote a
while back and while it is not on the subject of impermanence, the concept of
impermanence came into the last line and I thought this would be a nice follow
on from my reflection for Wednesday 5th.
I did quite a bit of fiddling with the original poem I
wrote, because I know these particular publishers are very fussy about unnecessary
words, and clichés are a definite no. I
was pleased with my new version and ready to post it here until I realized that
if by any chance they should find the poem on my blog, there would be no chance
they would publish it, should they wish to do so. Instead however, I offer this piece of wisdom
on the subject of not just impermanence, but also, love, relationships,
security, delusion and flow from Anne
Morrow Lindberg:
“When you love someone, you do not love them all the time,
in exactly the same way, from moment to moment.
It is an impossibility. It is
even a lie to pretend to. And yet, this
is exactly what most of us demand. We
have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of
relationships. We leap at the flow of
time and resist in terror its ebb. We are
afraid it will never return. We insist
on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible in
life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom. The only real security is not in owning or
possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in
looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the
present and accepting it as it is now.
For relationships, too, must be like islands. One must accept them for what they are here
and now, within their limits – islands surrounded and interrupted by the sea,
continuously visited and abandoned by the tides. One must accept the serenity of the winged
life, of ebb and flow, of intermittency.”
Anne Morrow Lindberg
That ebb and flow, that is life isn't it...we call it by different names but it also the way things change, constantly - ups and downs...impermanence ...it's our daily challenge...and sometimes we deal well with it, and other times not at all well..
ReplyDeleteBut I guess intention is the key..because that shapes our moments...our directions...beginnings and endings..I really like this author, have her book on the sea...must read it again..it's been too long since I turned those pages..
XX
Thanks Barbara, so glad it reminded you of Lindberg. I had not heard of her until I was doing my spirituality course in Milltown and I went for spiritual direction to a very nice woman who recommended her to me to read. Must get it out from the library again, or better still try and get a copy of her book 'A gift from the Sea' I think it's called. I found the above on the internet when I googled some ideas on the subject of impermanence. xx
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