Impermanence of Life

Image courtesy: https://www.urban-wellness.ca/

The inspiration for this article comes from an incident that took place two days ago. It shook me on so many levels, but something unique happened today. First, let's revisit what happened two days ago. My laptop was stolen with all my data and some other belongings, which, like anyone else, left me all heartbroken and shattered. I am aspiring to be a PhD scholar, which meant that my laptop had all my relevant files and information. With all that gone, I had to get a new laptop immediately because my work couldn't be halted for long due to a project commitment. Cut to what happened today. I was travelling to my workplace for my project, and while I was about to get down from my metro, I saw a laptop bag that looked exactly like my old stolen one. I felt terrible looking at it. The feelings were very overwhelming because it reminded me of my old laptop and its connected memories. But that very minute, another thought crossed my mind, and I held on to it. The thought was of the impermanence of anything in life. It was quite an enlightening moment because I realised that's exactly how life functions. Something that was ours today or close to something we had will be someone else's at another point of time.
We constantly connect ourselves so dearly to everything and everyone around us that, in the process, we forget the sheer impermanence of anything or anyone we have right now. That is how the circle of life has been revolving since time immemorial, but despite that, we not only invest in such emotions of dearness but also start depending on them for our existence. Our conscious knows the reality of the temporary existence of things and people but stays in denial until that connection goes forever. In no way do I propagate that we shouldn't keep these connections with things and people; it's just a reminder to embrace change equally. A lot of times, in the process of fate forcing us to forgo something very close to us, it is trying to upgrade us to something bigger and better. I have been using my laptop for approximately five years now, and being the kind of person I am, I would not have given it up for another five years. That's also nothing wrong, but sometimes we may not know, but life knows that we need to ameliorate ourselves. It's only the higher power that has cognizance of the bigger picture. In this whole process of self-realisation, I also understood that the universe, almighty, or higher power, whichever we choose to believe in, gives us only those circumstances to deal with that we can handle. Initially, I thought all my data had been lost, unsure if the cloud backup was there or not. I was mostly sure that all my data was gone forever, taking loads of my research with it. But to my surprise, I found it all when I set up my new system. At the brink of hopelessness, I found hope. At times, life functions in mysterious ways that may be beyond our comprehension. It's better to accept that we can only go so far to understand different life instances and their relative purposes. At times, we rediscover, at times we evolve, other days we just learn survival, and then there are days when we upgrade. 
 
The impermanence of life causes pain, which is absolutely normal to experience, but it also teaches us that life needs constant updating. Moreover, this incident made me a stronger person in terms of letting go, accepting change, and handling tough emotions. This article is a reminder to anyone reading that when life pushes hard, push harder because you will not be served anything you cannot deal with. It may get very tough and seem like we have no way forward, but that just means we need a better realisation of who we are. We can break down, stop, and feel rock bottom, but bounce back because life is just enhancing us into a new and better version of ourselves.

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