Time passes by quickly.

While looking through pictures on my phone, I am reminded. I do not remain the same. My children do not either. Our bodies are constantly recycling cells, and most of our body is not the same as it was seven years ago.

It is an amazing and complex mystery.

As much as I’d like to hold on to my life and family just as it is always, I know it cannot be so. We are made of matter and energy which is constantly changing. I need to learn to go with the flow and accept life as it comes.

Marcus Aurelius once said:

“Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone – those that are now, and those to come. Existence flows past us like a river: the “what” is in constant flux, the “why” has a thousand variations. Nothing is stable, not even what’s right here. The infinity of past and future gapes before us – a chasm whose depths we cannot see. 

So it would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress. Or any indignation, either. As if the things that irritate us lasted.

Remember:

Matter. How tiny your share of it.

Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it.

Fate. How small a role you play in it.”

This opinion may seem bleak, but it’s definitely at least kind of true. I am a firm believer that everything and everyone is interconnected, and that thought comforts me. If I have any say in it, one day my body will return to dust and can nurture other life. I believe my soul will continue to live on too, in some way, shape, or form. So while I might not be as harsh as Marcus in my assessment of life, I do appreciate his thoughts and I think his attitude can be helpful.

I used to think that how I mothered my children had a huge eternal significance, and I put a pretty big burden on myself to do everything perfectly. Well, I’ve learned this isn’t exactly the case. The self-importance I put on my role was foolish.

While it is important to live a life of virtue and hopefully point my children in that direction as well, I must never forget that this life (as well as all of us) are constantly changing. Before long we will be gone, and our memories will likely be as well. I do find comfort in the fact that hopefully some of my values as well as my genes will be passed on through later generations, even if “Nicole” is no longer remembered.

And I think this is enough. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today, friends!