Spring reminds us of the impermanence of winter. Summer will remind us of the impermanence of spring. A full moon rises in a cloudless sky. Clouds remind us of the impermanence of a cloudless night.

The musical term da capo sends the score back to the beginning. When the musician then reaches the first coda symbol, they jump to the second coda which will take them to the final section or the end of the score. Life would suggest the second coda is impermanent. Year after year we move through the seasons. The clouds move, appear and disappear throughout the days and nights.

It’s not like the movie, Groundhog Day. It’s simply the celebration of beginning again. A perpetual do-over that is never the same. I think of the trails I walked day after day and they were never the same. The same sun rises and never have I seen two identical sunrises or sunsets. We get a do-over and yet the “I” that experiences the do-over is never the same. We are changed by each experience.

Technology, chores, work, family, and all the stimuli we encounter each day confine us into believing we can’t catch our breath or we’ll never catch up. Impermanence, meditation, contemplation, and stillness remind us of the sweetness of simply beginning again. This moment. This breath. This pause.

Again, the season of Spring has come
and a spring-source rises under everything,
a moon sliding from the shadows.
Many things must be left unsaid, because it’s late,
but whatever conversation we haven’t had
tonight, we’ll have tomorrow. ~ Rumi