Things end. Maybe that’s an abrupt way of putting it. It’s certainly succinct and uncomfortably true. All things end, or as Gautama the Buddha, phrased it, “All compound things are subject to decay.”

Time passes. Things end. Tempests are not eternal.

There’s an immutable corollary to this, however. 

Things begin. Time is precious.

Time passes and things change. Things grow. Things transform.

We are all caught up in what feels like a wave. I sat on the beach the other day and thought about this, watching the waves roll the pebbles and toss themselves against the cobblestones. I watched the waves rage valiantly, changing the topography of the shores they swept over, finally dashing themselves on the highest reaches of the beach to fade and die. 

All things eventually end. This too shall pass.

While it passes, as we stagger through the shifting sands of what daily life looks like, time is also passing. As my time passes, as the years that I have to spend decrease, I find myself less inclined to waste them. Time will pass. Whether the health conditions in which we are currently swirling last two months or eighteen or somewhere in between, that time WILL pass. It will be gone. You will not get it back. You use it or you will lose it.

So. Yesterday I looked again at my remarkable and full life and decided that I have many positives to focus on and things I want to accomplish. That was the case several months ago and it has not changed. I also recognize that none of my goals are made any better by reading speculative articles posted on FB, watching the news, or entertaining the current panic on social media and the media in general. Not one of my goals or dreams is served by doing this. All of them require action, thought, effort, diligence and the steadfastly using the help and advice of select professionals. The “how” of them may need modification, but the “what” and “why” are unchanged.

I am making a large assumption, based on a combination of hope and also a strong faith in my own resilience and that of those closest to me. 

I assume that regardless of the timing of all of this, I will come out the other side somehow. 

The question therefore is, “Who do I want to be then?” 

Whenever this ends, who do I want to be, standing there, facing the rest of my life and the world?

That focuses a person.

Time will pass regardless. There is no “pause button” in Life. 

What am I going to do with it? How will I continue to grow?

And on that wonderful note, I’m going to get back to researching, going for a walk, taking some photos, and then training. Because I’ve decided to be the person who made the most of this situation and persevered – a bit stronger and a lot wiser.