letting go

the other day i heard news that a woman in a lab downstairs from mine gave birth to a baby girl - the excited father spread word of the news shortly following her birth, ensuring all that both mother and child were doing well. later that same day, another message was sent relaying the tragic news that the baby had passed away. for  but a few moments, we all shared in this family's joy, and quite suddenly, the joy was replaced with sorrow. 

i have thought a lot about the nature of life passing. the movement of time and place can be quite jarring for one's senses, particularly when joy is so quickly followed by utter sorrow without space to buffer our emotional and mental experiences. yet, the fact of the matter is that all moments of life are fleeting. all experiences of life, however intense or jarring, are finite. all things arise, abide, and subside. 

that last part bears repeating - all things arise, abide, and subside. 

when experiences of joy are so quickly replaced by experiences of sorrow, i have a tendency to doubt the existence of the former. but the truth of the matter is that the experiences of joy are just as real as any experience of sadness - they arise, abide, and like all things, subside. 

given the fleeting nature of life, and of our experiences in general, i suppose our duty then is to honor each moment as it comes, and then practice the art of letting go. however, as a person who is in constant practice of such an art, i admit that the knowledge of the fleeting nature of life in no way mitigates the challenge of letting go, and for that matter, the challenge of honoring each moment. letting go is one of the hardest things i have been forced to do in my life, and the process is ongoing. it is true that each moment of letting go is a moment of experiencing loss, yet it also seems true that as we let go of one moment we create space for the next. and, in each new moment we find another opportunity to find a sense of joy.