This Too Shall Pass

Those adolescent feelings I confessed to in the last post flew instantly away once the staff came back from whale watching and we played our annual cornhole tournament. So much fun! And so refreshing to be with each other in a different way. I keep talking about how playing, singing and dancing is one of life’s quickest and most profound way to connect with other people. But there’s lot of other ways— and cornhole is a pretty great one! So nice to see a different side of people I know so well in one way and all it takes is a board and a beanbag. 

 

So a good reminder that while it’s fine to check in on your feelings at any given moment and in my case, try to express it in writing, we should understand that “this too, shall pass.” Perhaps that’s part of the Buddhist wisdom of non-attachment. Don’t’ get too attached to your feelings, your thoughts, your reactions to events, for they all shall pass away like a leaf in the wind. 

 

That goes equally for the good, bad and the ugly. And the beautiful. No matter how bad things seem—witness the clown show in Washington— or how good things seem—every day in every Orff Course I’ve taught this year (or any year)— all is impermanence and subject to change. So had I continued to pay undue attention to that whiny violin tune I was hearing instead of getting out and jumping in the swimming pool, I would have wasted so much time on an unnecessary pity party. 

 

So good to remember: “This too, shall pass.”