On impermanence

 

The thing is to accept (and even like) the very thing about life that upsets one the most because we are moving irreconcilably to death. And that is the impermanence of life. We can't freeze life to when we were most happy. We continue on and on and then we reflect on the past, on when we were happy but, perhaps, didn't know it. We weren't self-conscious in our happiness. It doesn't work that way; we think back, we're nostalgic creatures, and we fix on a time when we were most happy, or we think we were. We fight our emotions and ideas of self-reproachment, we beat them down! Why are we even having them? Because self-reproachment is an act of depression and we live with more or less mild depression all of the time. And we remember the past and wish we could live on an island of unself-consciousness and unreflected happiness. Is it a hallucination? Does it make any sense? We are sad, we grieve for what we had. We hate impermanence. And we are too old to suffer more impermanence, more change. What to do? What to do? 

                                                                                        16 April 2023

Labyrinth at Rosedale-Queen Mary Road United Church on Terrebonne Avenue in NDG

If, one summer day, you wander along Terrebonne Avenue in NDG, you might find yourself at Rosedale United Church where there is a labyrinth that is open to anyone who wants to walk there. It is a truly incredible experience, it removes you from everyday life and you find yourself in a world of archetypes. There is something about walking a labyrinth that immediately alters one's consciousness; the bigger issues of life, one's place in the universe, take over one's thinking. Life is seen for what it is, a journey, and on this journey there are many twists, turns, reversals, new beginnings, success, failure, and redemption. This labyrinth is free, open to the public, and one of the places in this City of Mary--Ville Marie--that I highly recommend.