If you're invested in security and certainty, you are on the wrong planet.
– Pema Chodron
A man prays and a woman sobs as a huge crown topples off a tower. Whatever their crowning achievement was - land holdings, enough diplomas to fill a wall, a multitude of family and friends or a fat bank account - it did not save them from falling back to earth where all mortals must dwell. There is a huge difference between preparing and micromanaging; preparation has plans in place for when an event happens, while micromanagement attempts to keep the inevitable from happening at all. The Crystal Ball shows a woman trying to foresee her future. Will she try to control or plan for what she sees will happen? An interesting bit of trivia about this painting is that one of the previous owners had the skull painted over (as if that would keep death at bay). Life is full of difficulties and delights for everyone, but as Jack Kornfield reminds us, only three things truly matter in the end:
- How well have we lived?
- How well have we loved?
- How well have we learned to let go?
And those questions are what we need to ask ourselves before the tower falls and or the Grim shows up.
ReplyDeleteFunny how we forget what's important. :)
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