We spend much of our lives trying to build things that last. We crave stable relationships, secure careers, and a legacy that outlives us. This desire for permanence is natural—it stems from our need for safety in an unpredictable world.
But there is a tension in this pursuit. The nature of reality is change. The cells in our bodies replace themselves; the landscape around us shifts; our thoughts and emotions rise and fall like tides. To cling to permanence is to fight against the fundamental current of life.
The beauty of the fleeting
When we stop resisting transience, something shifts. We begin to see beauty not despite the fact that things end, but because they do. The cherry blossom is beautiful precisely because it falls. A conversation with a loved one becomes sacred when we remember it won't happen forever.
Impermanence gives valuable things their value. Scarcity creates worth. A sunset is majestic because it is brief. If the sun stayed at the horizon forever, we would cease to notice it.
A practice of letting go
Mindfulness is often misunderstood as a way to "capture" the moment. But true mindfulness is the practice of letting the moment go. It is witnessing the arising and passing of experience without grasping.
By embracing the transient nature of our lives, we find a different kind of stability—not in the things around us, but in our capacity to be with whatever arises. We become the riverbed, steady as the water flows.