Transitory

Friends, 

As I sat in quiet this morning the birch tree outside my window gently shuffled in the breeze, and puffs of clouds crept casually across the sky. The constant but subtle movement of nature made me especially aware of how transitory all of life actually is. The prefix trans- signals “a passage through.” I think of the breeze and the clouds just passing through, not staying, yet also being eventually replaced in the perpetual planetary motion. We hear the word “trans” these days primarily in reference to gender change, but then I think we are all “trans” in some form from the day we are born. In every part of our body and being, we are all simply “passing through." 

But the transitory nature of life also contains a whole flow of actual events that leave a trail of memories. Cathy and I recently celebrated our wedding anniversary in Victoria with a nearly two hour special “high tea” luncheon by reminiscing about our now nearly thirty years together - and we only got through the first eight years! Time is both a concept and a tangible reality of experience and relationships with people and place. The concept part means we often are not really fully aware of the memories being stored when we are so immersed in them. I read recently that a great philosopher is remembered for his sagely advice of “Don’t think; look!” And remembering back over a whole lifetime - or even one day at a time - we are most alive when we are truly “looking” at the passage of time, person and place, but we are also constantly aware of the challenges and successes of it all. When we simply "look” at the miracle of life - all of it - there is so much to have seen and felt, even if we were too busy or engaged with responsibilities at the time.

It is probably important to apply a more contemplative approach to life especially when we can feel so deeply anxiously enmeshed in our troubles. Yes, it is extremely difficult to be circumspect in times of real personal, relational, or political crisis. But as the great powers of nature have taught us, the storms and the sunshine arrive on their own terms of time and intensity, and there is something about our personal and governmental shifts that will work the same way with or without our quest for control.

My reflections this evening have been more in a contemplative mode, and I hope you will join me in this more quiet place as you read my thoughts this Sunday morning. As we now prepare for our summer solstice and what can often seem like the all too fleeing days of summer, let us pause regularly to really appreciate both the reality of the moment and its transitory nature of its beauty as well. The gift of grace and consciousness allows, and in fact encourages, us to sense the transitory “beams of love and light” and the incredible wonder and glory of the composite of it all.

Blessings,
Tom