Fleetingness

Thinking of this today, what with the goodbyes, the teary messages in my inbox, missing friends who are working/studying overseas and colleagues who you love and miss but only meet once a year because we all work remotely.

“Impressionism is interested in the fact that the things we love most change, are only around a very short time and then disappear. It celebrates the sort of happiness that lasts a few minutes, rather than years.

In this painting, the snow looks lovely; but it will melt. The sky is beautiful at this moment, but it is about to go dark. This style of art cultivates a skill that extends far beyond art itself: a skill at accepting and attending to short-lived moments of satisfaction.

The peaks of life tend to be brief. Happiness doesn’t come in year-long blocks.

With the Impressionists to guide us, we should be ready to appreciate isolated moments of everyday paradise whenever they come our way, without making the mistake of thinking them permanent.”

— Alain de Botton