ch-ch-ch changes

A friend of mine recently reconciled with her mother, with whom she hadn't spoken in years. This was possible, she said, because of how much her mother has changed. This made me thing about my mother. Like most mothers and daughters, we have had our close times and our estranged times. She is the person I turn to first, and the person I push away the most. But one thing is true - she is not the same person she was when I was growing up, and I am not the same person I was when she was a young mother.

This led me to consider how we form opinions about each other based on moments in time. One interaction can color our impressions for years. But really, we are all changing day by day, moment by moment. We mistakenly think of ourselves as having some kind of "permanent structure," when actually our physical tissues are continually being turned over, renewed in a balance between the constant death of old cells and the constant birth of new cells. Our emotions and thoughts are continually changing too -- karmic seeds are ripening and dying, new mental images and habits are constantly being created and destroyed. So the "you" I see today, and the "me" you see, will be different tomorrow.

So it is critical to start fresh all the time. To refrain from judgments and holding grudges. Because tomorrow, later, now, can be totally different. Which brings me to one of my favorite poems:

Salutation to the Dawn
(Kalidasa)

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life,
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of beauty.

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes every yesterday
A dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.