“When Gautama Buddha said “Every breath I take is a new me,” he wasn’t speaking metaphorically. He meant it literally. Buddha was teaching that life is a progression of discrete moments of constant reincarnation from a previous you to a present you.” from The Earned Life – Lose regret, Choose Fulfillment by Marshal Goldsmith.

He turned this idea into a paradigm, which speaks so well to yesterday’s thoughts about isolation and the pandemic. 

The transient nature of life was always there for me in a very literal sense, from the death of my brother Tal at the age of five to the art that I chose to create. 

Performing arts are ephemeral arts

You work for months on end to create a show, and it runs for a while, if it’s successful, then you move on, usually to the next creation. 

Audiences change from performance to performance, the quality of the work changes, the artists’ performance, and familiarity with the materials. Everything is ephemeral and in constant change and evolution. 

While you create, you evolve as a creator and a human being because every creation demands new things from you, and you do your best for it to be born into the world, you are at the service of your creation. 

Think of a baby, born, already changing with every breath, no day is the same. Since babies evolve very quickly, you can see it on them in a very literal sense. 

Look at your life, how have you evolved? What choices did you make changed you in what ways? Choices after which life was never the same again. 

Let us know in the comments below.