Everything changes

Things are changing, but then they always do. Nothing ever stays the same; you cannot step into the same river twice. Everything changes from moment to moment; both you and the river have changed. Even if you only stepped into it a second or so before, the river and you will have been changed by that event so that neither of you is the same as before.

[Nude Woman Stepping Off Rocks Into Pool Of Water Johann Friedrich Waldeck (1766-1875 German) Newberry Library, Chicago]

Even the smallest action – or inaction – can have the broadest unforeseen consequences. The smallest pebble dropped into the river leaves ripples undulating out from the point where it hit the water. Every breath you take and every touch of your finger on naked skin can change the world in some way, has already changed the world in some way.

You cannot escape or evade the world; your lack of presence has just as much an effect as you presence. Your child’s eyes nervously scanning the audience in front of the suddenly huge stage will register the lack of your familiar face just as much as registering the reassuring familiarity when your face is finally found and recognised.

Everything changes everything else, it is all interconnected and we cannot escape that, even by escaping from it.