EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY

This is a beautiful story that the poet Theodore Tilton has very emotively expressed in the stanzas...

EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY

Once in Persia reigned a king,

Who upon a signet ring

Carved a maxim strange and wise,

When held before his eyes,

Gave him counsel at a glance,

Fit for every change and chance:

Solemn words and these were they:

'EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Trains, of camel through the sand

Brought him gems from Samarcand;

Fleets of galleys over the seas

Brought him pearls to rival these,

But he counted little gain,

Treasures of the mine or main;

'What is wealth?' the king would say

"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

'Mid the pleasures of his court

the zenith of their sport,

When the palms of all his guests

Burned with clapping at his jests,

Seated midst the figs and wine,

Said the king: 'Ah, friends of mine,'

Pleasure comes but not to stay,

"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Woman, fairest ever seen

Was the bride he crowned as queen,

Pillowed on the marriage-bed

Whispering to his soul, he said

"Though no monarch ever pressed

Fairer bosom to his breast,

Mortal flesh is only clay!

'EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Fighting on the furious field,

Once a javelin pierced his shield,

Soldiers with a loud lament

Bore him bleeding to his tortured side,

'Pain is hard to bear," he cried,

But with patience, day by day,

"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY.'

Towering in a public square

Forty cubits in the air,

And the king disguised, unknown,

Gazed upon his sculptured name,

And he pondered, "What is fame?'

Fame is but a slow decay!

"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Struck with palsy, sore and old,

Waiting at the gates of gold,

Said he with his dying breath

'Life is done, but what is Death?"

Then as answer to the king

Fell a sunbeam on his ring;

Showing by a heavenly ray,

"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Life is a challenge. ....We all agree

Life does have its ups and downs.... its trials and tribulations, but the saving grace is no one is exempt from these things.No matters how fortunate, successful, rich, pampered, admired, or loved we are, some days will be better than others. .....Some days will be bad ....Some days we will crash against unrelenting stone walls, which we can't dig under or climb over.

In the world of high finance and Wall Street, it has been said that what goes up will go down as if it were a see-saw. Now if we look at this topsy turvy world.... the spirituality of ups and downs will get clarity.... it is a matter of seeing what you previously didn't see.

In other words, if learn to adapt the belief that change is a way of life  ...and this too shall pass.

Such a way of life will prevent the dramatic rise in elated feeling when things are going well and the depressed feeling when the roof appears to be caving in.

Theodore Tilton was an intense Poet perhaps came to terms with vagaries of life, when he penned the poem... He was a young, handsome, religious journalist, an editor, a novelist, an orator and was a supporter of social reforms, including woman suffrage. The talented Tilton edited a New York daily, called 'The Independent', dedicated to emancipation.  When businessmen Bowen bought the Independent in 1860, he named his pastor, Henry Ward Beecher, as editor and his fellow parishioner, Theodore Tilton, as an editorial assistant. The two men became devoted colleagues and friends. "There were also practical reasons why Henry Ward [Beecher] found young Tilton so valuable a friend. Tilton was well known in newspaper offices, and no one better than Henry Ward Beecher knew the importance of publicity. Despite these successes, Tilton's professional and personal lives headed for a crisis. Tilton "liked to go off on long, strenuous lecture tours, leaving Liz and the children behind. Liz, a former Sunday-school teacher, worshipped ardently at Dr Beecher's church, and during Theodore's long absences Beecher also ministered privately to her,"  Tilton subsequently charged Beecher with seducing his wife. The resulting scandal was aired in a courtroom and in church pews. It involved a complex myriad of charges, countercharges, retractions and reassertions. It was an unholy mess. In a notorious 1874 sex scandal, he sued his friend and mentor, Henry Ward Beecher, for alleged adultery with Mrs Tilton, nee Elizabeth M. Richards. The trial resulted in a hung jury. His popularity waned after the trial. In 1883 he exiled himself to Paris.  He died there and was buried at Barbizon. How we deal with things we can't control determines our quality of life. We all know of celebrities who destroy themselves because they see no reason to live, and cancer patients who continue to live and love and laugh and make the most of every moment they have left. Our character and attitude will make us or break us.

A great man, Abraham Lincoln, understood change.   

At the memorial ceremony for Tim Russert, Maria Shriver told this story about a possible "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert and President Lincoln.   

Mr Russert asks President Lincoln, "How could you change your position?"   President Lincoln replied, "I'd like to think that my changing positions is an indication that I have grown smarter."  

"The only constant is change."

Whenever I hear this quote from Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, I get the distinct feeling that he must have been looking through a crystal ball at my life! ......

Well .come to think of it you will agree that it is definitely true of all life in the universe..... the only constant changes.

Does it not seem at times this makes us feel like we are dancing on shifting sand.

Just when you think you know which foot to move in which direction, suddenly the terrain has altered, and the ground rules change, and you have to re-think your next step. While this can be bewildering, and at times downright stressful, by accepting the fact that we never know what is going to happen next, we can learn to approach life as the great adventure that it can be.

Sometimes in life, it is best that we throw away the map that we have created and just take the steps intuitively as a  steer...

 We may just stumble and see the path that is forming in front of us.

There are times in our lives when we seem to experience even more change than usual. At times change may be difficult and unsettling...I agree, but let us see in them an opportunity for great personal growth.

Can you see your life on a uni-planar level??

Surely  ... you will become aware of the stagnation, and when we are stagnating and not moving or changing, we are also not growing. This way... if we can recognize that rapid change can also bring rapid growth, the ‘growing pains’ we may experience from a lot of change can be easier to endure.

Realizing that the ebb and flow of life circumstances will not follow the path that we may want them to follow, the best way to cope with a life of constant change is to learn to flow with those changes, rather than trying to fight against them.