April 9
This too will pass. Be the reed through which the friend's breath flows — and whatever comes, say yes to it.
Divan (freely rendered)
Listening mode
This too will pass. Be the reed through which the friend's breath flows — and whatever comes, say yes to it.
The saying that everything passes is mostly said in hard times. It is meant to help you get through a week, a sleepless night, the wait for test results. Often it really does help: it gives an edge to whatever is filling you completely right now.
The odd thing is that in a good hour the same sentence sounds almost like a threat. No one likes to say it aloud while the food is still warm and the conversation is just becoming easy. Where you would like to stay, you don't want to be reminded of the end.
So you tend to use transience in one direction only, as a way out of what is unpleasant. Yet in the hard time you are often already half gone before it is over. You count the hours instead of looking. That doesn't make it any shorter, only stranger.
Saying yes, then, would not mean approving of what is hard. Rather, not already being somewhere else in either situation: not rushing ahead while you wait, not holding on when things go well. One of these probably comes more easily to you than the other.
When the good hour ends, sometimes you only notice because someone pushes back their chair.
