Impermanence

It is incredible how fast things change

You live your life one way

thinking it will be like that forever

that people and places and things will stay

that you are set in your ways

and your life will be untouchable

like a museum exhibit

But life has other plans for you

Friends you believed would be forever

fade away into strangers

strangers grow into life-long friends

You feel uncomfortable in your own skin

an alien in your own body

because new life stages are forcing you to

stretch and grow in ways that sometimes feel painful

When you look back

the person you were and the life you had

and the people you spent time with

are almost unrecognizable

They are a far away thought

A scene from a movie you watched

years and decades and centuries ago

When you try to go back you are a piece in the puzzle

that no longer fits

It is a hard lesson to learn

that people and places and things

and moments

and you

are impermanent

Life is a series of small deaths and rebirths

We are just along for the ride in this carousel

Grief is a recurring theme

I mourn the things I have lost

the experiences and relationships

and the person I have outgrown

that will never be the same

and that are now a fond and distant memory

But life is now exhilarating in

new and breathtaking ways

like standing in front of a precipice

not knowing what is down there

but jumping anyways

Having the freedom of choice

the choice of people and places and things

Living new adventures

with the understanding that

everything is impermanent

that I will keep stretching and growing

while being unapologetically myself

And that when things unavoidably change

I can look back to the memories with love

and to the future with excitement

for this new beginning