This Too Shall Pass

As I was laying in the bed this morning, reveling in the fact that I had no pressing reason to get out from under the covers (the kids were with the in-laws) my mind began to wander, as it often does. I was off yesterday and again today which, considering I've been working 6 day weeks since October, constitutes a vacation. Then I began thinking about my actual vacation which is coming up in a couple of weeks. Naturally, the thought of 4 days off in a row got me quite giddy. But then I began to think about how fast those 4 days will pass and I became a little melancholy. That's the way it goes with me. I never stay happy for long but, on the bright side, I rarely stay depressed long either. And this got me thinking about a parable I read in a book about Buddhism once. It seems there was a ruler once who commanded his subjects to present him with a gift that would make him happy when he was sad and sad when he was happy. Many of his subjects came and went but none were able to meet the parameters of his edict. Finally came someone who presented him with a plain brass ring. No one in the court thought that this plain item would be what their ruler was hoping for. After a few long moments of contemplating the simple ring the ruler at last smiled and announced that this was what he had been hoping for. When questioned by one of his followers as to why this trinket fulfilled his wishes the ruler simply showed him the ring. Inside the band were inscribed four simple words: this too shall pass. I have thought of these words often in my life and I have found that they can indeed make one happy when they are sad and sad when they are happy. Life has a way of deceiving us daily. At times it seems life is so long and that we may have years or even decades to do the things we want. At other times the realization of how short life really is hits home. As a teenager I often subscribed to the theory of carpe diem (seize the day). It's easy when you're young and have no responsibility to seize the day. It becomes much harder as the years go by and you have a family and a job and other responsibilities. Seizing the day is near impossible when you're more concerned about how your bills are going to get paid or what the future holds for your children. As I've I gotten older I've found that the mantra that "this too shall pass" serves me much better. It helps me to never get too high or too low and to just worry about getting through the day and let tomorrow take care of itself. I realize that is also a biblical principle which to me just shows how similar religions are to one another. But that's a blog for another day...