Beautiful girl, you have solved life’s greatest mystery, uncovered its biggest secret. You have found the antidote to all human suffering.

Each time you look over your shoulder you will be reminded, that nothing stays the same. Every time you turn and catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, you will see, in reverse, that everything changes.

You know that nothing stays the same, because nothing stays. Not the clouds in the sky. Not the thoughts in your head. Not the feelings in your heart. Not the cells in your body. Nothing.

Everything is always changing, growing, moving, flowing. And everything will pass. The heartbreak will pass. The joy will pass. The success and failure will pass. Good luck and misfortune will pass. Ease and struggle will pass. Anxiety and calm will pass. Pain and pleasure will pass.

You already know that the heartbreak of impermanence is that every ‘good’ thing passes. And you know that the beauty of impermanence is that every ‘bad’ thing passes.

So you can still take a 100 photos a day. You can post the frozen moments on your feed. You can write it all down. You can replay it in your mind, obsessively. But you know, you know, that all of this is temporary.

And now that you know the secret of success, now that you have the key to contentment, you will hold on loosely, to everything; to ideas, to expectations, to emotions; if you even hold on at all.

And you won’t ever forget it. Never. Because you have it there, on your skin. In permanent ink. Forever.

The earworm ‘all things go, all things go’