Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'm going to talk about the beauty of impermanence. So it's really natural for the human mind to desire for things to be stable and permanent. So to see that everything is changing, an impermanent is not always an easy pill to swallow. But there is a really great wisdom in having a clear recognition that everything is fleeting and changing.

The flower blooming in the vase today will wilt and decompose. The sun that's warming and sustaining our planet will one day grow cold. We are born and one day we will pass away. Nothing is forever. This is the bittersweet truth that permeates the universe.

Now it's understandable to feel a little bit of fear or sadness in the face of impermanence, but there's also an incredible amount of richness and beauty available to us if we can accept and even embrace it. And we can actually let go of a lot of suffering and fear by learning to roll with impermanence instead of resisting it. And we can even learn to embrace wholeheartedly the magic. And the wonder of it. Because if you think about it, it's only because things end that we understand the preciousness of them.

You know, when moved by the beauty of a sunset as it falls below the horizon of another day of our life. We savor the spring flowers because we know that they're one day going to be gone. We aim to make the most of our lives because on some level, whether it's conscious or unconscious, we know that we're not going to be here forever. So when we stay in touch with the fact that everything and everyone that we see all around us will one day be gone, we're much more likely to appreciate and fully be present for the moment to moment experience of our lives. And mindfulness invites us to gently soften our fear and resistance to change and find acceptance and harmony with the ever changing nature of things.

So my invitation for you today is to see if you can bring more acceptance to the changing nature of life. See if it's possible to soften clinging and resistance and open up to an appreciation of the mystery of each person, each experience, and each moment. Embracing impermanence in this way, we open ourselves more fully and deeply to life and find new levels of meaning and magic in our lives. As Mary Oliver in her poem, Blackwater Woods says, "To live in this world you must be able to do three things, to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go." I wish you well with this practice today. And now just inviting you to settle in for today's meditation.