“Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away. For substance is like a river’s unending flow, its activities continually changing and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing at all stands still.”
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.23
If you turn back to look at a path you have already taken, chances are, the path has now changed. If you cross a river one day, and return to cross in the opposite direction on the next day, you may find that the river has changed course and the crossing has moved locations. Nothing stands still.
We see this in the cities and towns in which we grew up. Progress moves onward, without waiting for anyone. Buildings that house our memories and our longings are torn down. Fields where we used to play ball are plowed under and turned into shopping malls. Nothing stands still.
You can’t get mad at change. Well, you can I suppose, but it’s kind of silly — it’s like getting mad at the wind. Change is always happening, you can’t control it anymore than you can control time.
And things were never going to last anyway, as much as you might have hoped they would. Time doesn’t stand still, no matter how fervent you might hope that it will. Nothing stands still. And that’s not wrong or bad, it just is.
