Impermanence: Nothing Lasts Forever

I write this post today with a heavy heart.

There is a principle in Buddhism that suggests that the source of all unhappiness is attachment. The concept of anitya, the Sanskrit word for impermanence, observes that everything is in a constant state of change; nothing lasts forever. Everything grows, evolves and eventually, breaks down into its composing elements. Those composing elements eventually combine with other elements anew, to form new matter and new life. Consciousness aside, this is reincarnation explained scientifically. With this concept in mind, decay can be beautiful.

The water is currently high all over Manitoba, from the rivers to the lakes they spill into. With every spring thaw, the water level rises reminding us that we are always at the mercy of nature. It doesn’t matter what your land title deed says, land can’t belong to you. We belong instead to the land. It has been here before us, it’ll be here long after time comes for us to return to it. We are the land, the elements and minerals that comprise us, only ours for as long as we are able to use them.

The way you own land is the same way you own beer; it’s a rental, not a purchase.

The water is noticeably high all along St. Mary’s road, though the street is high enough to observe the placid brimming banks with ignorant awe. Elsewhere, the landscape is filling as turbulent waters spill from the dyke broken to save 850 homes, demolishing 150 others.

Up south of Lake Manitoba, Twin Lakes Beach spills into cabin country. The beach where I once spent a weekend watching pelicans and existing complacently, living slowly before I consciously know what I was doing, now rests at the bottom of an expanding lake. The shoreline creeps into the cabin where I once slept, washing away evidence of collected memories, some I share and some unknown to me.

I never anticipated a return to that special place, but I am saddened that such a return is now strictly impossible. Such sadness is irrational, but this sadness is one thing I do in fact own, and it too will return to nothingness, such is the nature of all things. Nothing lasts forever; both a blessing and a shame.