poof!

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Today, I will go to the supermarket in an effort to look forward a few days and stock up against the potential difficulties that an on-coming hurricane may provide. I wouldn't be surprised if the supermarket shelves were denuded compared to less threatening times. Just now, the skies are sunny and bright, but, but, but ... hard times lurk ahead.

In spiritual practice, there is a saying: "Understanding is knowing to get out of the way of an on-coming bus. Practice is for the bus you didn't see coming." Funny how experience teaches over and over again that there simply is no way to prepare for the future, and still there are complex and heart-felt efforts to prepare for the future.

"Repent! The end is nigh!"

When has the end ever presented itself? The end of a war marks the beginning of preparations for the next war ... with an ill-considered version of 'peace' in the meantime, of course. The end of a birth is marked when the baby appears ... and from there it's one birth pang after another. When, precisely, is "the end?"

As often as "the end" slips through our fingers in reality, still the notion persists. "The end" sounds so convincing. You gotta believe. But, as usual, facts are not much interested in beliefs. Dawn becomes day becomes dusk becomes night becomes dawn ... and in between there are the smug certainties of various the-end's... the end of day, the end of night, etc.

"The end" is a strange customer, not least because its patent falsehoods are staring us in the face all the time. And the same might said for "the beginning."

More tightly woven than a strand of DNA, "the end" and "the beginning" seem to deserve a factual assessment and perhaps a new word ...

Something like "poof!" perhaps.

If everything poofs all the time, who's got time to repent or beg for absolution?
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