It's always the first and last time!

 

As a people who love nature and gardening,

We have come to appreciate

That what we saw or experienced yesterday,

Is not the same as what we see or experience today,

Even if we are looking or experiencing the same phenomena.

 

The adage that you never cross the same river twice

Is true in everything we do, see, touch, ear, taste or smell.

 

When you sleep, you wake up in a new day,

Completely unlike yesterday.

When you visit a place, it’s always the first the time,

Even if it’s your fourth or sixteenth visit –

The trees aren’t the same. They may have grown new branches or a little taller.

The flowers aren’t the same flowers you saw the last time –

Some have died and fallen off, and new ones have bloomed.

The air you breathed a second ago isn’t the same you are breathing now –

The winds are constantly blowing it in different directions.

Even the soil and the path you walked on ain’t the same –

Some of it may have worn out and blown away, or chipped and swept off.

 

It’s the same with all of us.

We aren’t the same people we were a year or a month ago or yesterday.

Life and time has worked on us and changed us.

We are, literally, reborn anew, every day…and every moment.

And so are our spouses, children, relatives and friends.

And so is the world we live in, including our favourite cafe, bar or supermarket.

The barrista, waiter or cashier at the counter isn’t the same we saw the last time,

Even though their bodies and faces look the same.

And the coffee beans, beers and the shopping in our basket is all new –

We are seeing and experiencing them for the very first and last time.

 

It’s all shifting and changing.

And yet...

And yet we keep holding this fixed picture of ourselves,

Others and the world around us, as if it were true.

And this often leads to some big problems

In the way we relate with others and the world around us.

 

What would change in your life

If you lived it with the awareness that today,

And everything you do and experience today,

You are doing, or experiencing it, for the very first and last time?

*Photo credit: Andrea De Santis