“It’s temporary.”

I woke from a dream one night saying the words aloud. I had gone to bed that night restless with uncertainty about my job situation. I’ve been trying to advance my career with my current company for some time.

Every potential opportunity has been a dead end so far. Frustrated, I asked my body to show me what I needed to know about my situation. I don’t remember anything visual from my dreams that night. I only remember saying the words, “It’s temporary.”

Though this didn’t give me the answers I was hoping for, there was great comfort in the reminder. I didn’t have an action plan, but I did have great peace knowing that this is not my eternity. I meditated on the phrase, applying it to other areas of my life as well. I walked away from that meditation filled with hope and gratitude.

It’s temporary.

We can apply the words to anything in our current life that we are less than thrilled with. For instance, my boring health care job. I need my job, and I’m grateful for it, but it’s not what I want to do with my life. My apartment—I need it, and I’m grateful for it, but it’s not my favorite place I’ve ever lived. These are temporary stops on my journey. I know that I’m here for a reason, and in time I will move on to bigger and better things.

“It’s temporary” can also be applied to the things in our current life that are wonderful. It is a reminder to enjoy every moment. Be grateful for every experience. Appreciate the people in your life. Because, truly, everything is temporary.

It’s easy to coast through life when things are going well. How often do we stop and think about how amazing our adventure is, and how much we love the people we get to share it with?

This year, almost every woman in my office had a baby, while I was sending my first-born off to college.

Pregnancy is wonderful, and exhausting, and terrifying and temporary. When baby comes, the pain of labor is intense, and temporary. The sleep-deprived coma of new parenthood, the scraped knees when they fall off their bikes, the puberty induced rage, the dreaded stomach bugs and random childhood illnesses, all temporary. And then, as you enter the new phase of sleepless nights waiting for them to come home, or sitting on the phone with them while they lament the woes of college life, that’s also temporary.

As I walk through each temporary experience in my life, I will choose to focus on gratitude. Each experience is a gift, and in each gift is a lesson. As we learn, grow and evolve, many teachers will come and go from our lives. Some come in the form of wise counselors; others come as mirrors to show us the worst parts of ourselves. Both are valuable, and, many times, both are temporary.

Few things in this world are permanent.

No matter how earth-shattering our circumstances feel, they are seldom more than a temporary bump in the road. Approaching life with this in mind helps us to stay grounded in the present moment, which is also temporary, but powerfully so. It is in each moment that we have the opportunity to choose how we feel. In each beautifully temporary moment, we can choose love, joy, peace, happiness, forgiveness, truth and bliss.

What is life, if not a sequence of temporary moments and events?

When we choose love in each moment, we create a whole life of love. How awesome is that?

~

Relephant Read:

Take heart, all of it is temporary. All of it.

~

Author: Renee Dubeau

Assistant Editor: Brook Bentley // Editor: Toby Israel

Photo: AlexandreDulaunoy/flickr

~