This is a tribute, reflection, exploration, whatever, of my favorite meme:

A link to the original tweet.

I fucking love this meme. It’s been endlessly applicable in my life. I’ve found that many, many things in my life are easier to accept, and even more than that, find joy and beauty in, through this framing. It’s an invitation to remember that two things can be true, that despite difficulties there can be beauty, even in the suffering and pain. A way to accept impermanence, and in fact to be held by impermanence, when things are incredibly, deeply hard.

It’s possible that part of this is because I’ve had ongoing struggles with depression for quite some time, and especially that “hey, things are impermanent” reminder is incredibly useful, and in fact crucial to my survival, at times. A reminder that despair comes, and then it goes again. And it may return, but even in the midst of the dark torrent of despair, there are flowers being watered, and those flowers will bloom, and they want to be witnessed.

And even if that part doesn’t resonate with you, if you haven’t had those same struggles (which I hope you haven’t!), I think this can still be useful and helpful and nourishing. It’s an invitation to find beauty even in mourning. My son is fourteen, now, and I’m devastated at how quickly he’s going (gone?) from a little boy to a young man. And yet, at the same time, I rejoice at who he is becoming and the interesting and full life he has before him, and at the immense blessing it will be to know and love him as an adult. Both my grief and the fading of my little boy and my fullness of heart at his growing into a man can be, and are, true.

ayy lmao, indeed