A Work In Progress: Transcience
Somehow and at some time, the merciless and forcibly direct Sun has abadoned its task as life-sustainer, free hot water specialist and instigator of unpleasantly hot summer days to be replaced with what I am certain is a prank of Nature.
The breath of winter is not easy to describe, for aside from being a chilling veil of misfortune and poverty, an insignia of fashion and destitute, it is also a representation that all which thrived must now change. For without this moment of transcience between the seasons, there could be no sociological and spiritual meaning to dormancy, no artic breath to uncertainty and a pessimistic view of reclusivity.
A wise friend once said that all things live in change: that change is the only constancy and is a necessary requisite to the element of time. He also discussed in his ficticious work Children of Time*, that time is ineffiably the parent of life — albeit perceived a cruel one, for it takes from its kin all that is valuable. On the flipside, time is also praised as the necessary force that brings the wet saplings from genesis to Dharma and beyond. While change means different things to different people and yet interestingly, it is blessed by being present in nearly every spoken language. It is constant and fluid for all, but it is only transcience: the breath on the edge of movement, that plagues us.
My sister described to me a few days ago how she had been greeted at home by two elderly woman bearing a Bible and The Virgin Mary in their hands. Inwardly sighing in annoyance, she tried her best to greet them in a friendly way and silently prepared a speech of dismissal. Without realising it, my sister had changed her description of the women from what she had seen at a distance to her perception after opening the screen door. The women took a few steps forward and declared their reason for visiting, asking if my sister is a frequent pilgrim of church and whether or not she believes in God and the Virgin Mary.
“Listen lady,” she exclaimed, “I went to Bethlehem College, a Catholic school for all of my high school education and I think I have heard enough about the Virgin Mary!”
Seeming somewhat exasperated, the women nevertheless persisted to stare and awaited a proper answer. I would imagine that these door-to-door hawkers had a little more in store of a lesson than what first appeared. We can never stop learning about scripture, faith and practice. As we have heard in news as of late the rebuttal of many quabbles are an interpretation of religious material, and indeed it can be argued that religion is as subjective as personal style — simply that there’s more substance to it!
It would seem that we are resistant to change in our everyday lives as the base motivation of fear: fear of failure, of rejection and all of the negative emotions stigmatised by the workplace and the academic world.
More often than not, change comes in these small packages of opportunity, in many forms, shapes, colours: avenues of fruition which make the adjustment a much less painful process. When we are resistant to change or standing on the edge of transcience, we are either deeply pioneering our destiny or foolishly squandering good opportunity.
And as I move back into my university semester, perilously awaiting the examinations at the end and a graduation that will leave me questioning my destiny, I, too, will be in my transcience and have the choice of pioneering with my inner resources or abdigating my true responsibility.
May your decisions be filled with certainty, strength and temperance.
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