2009, when my Smart Car was brand new.

Unfortunately, last Sunday, my car and I were involved in an accident.  I had stopped in the street to back into a parking space and another car hit me from behind.  I’m perfectly fine, but the car is most likely totaled.  A 13 year-old car isn’t worth very much so even relatively minor damage can cost more to repair than the car is worth.  I’ll let the insurance company tell me what they want to do.

I loved that car.  I loved driving with the top down.  I bought it for commuting around the city, but it has been taking me over the Grapevine like a trooper for the last several months.  I was hoping to have it a few more years.  

All material things are impermanent.  The things we love are constantly leaving us:  favorite cars, and favorite people, too.  There’s always a little heartache in saying goodbye.

But impermanence is the truth of existence, so it’s good spiritual practice to develop the perspective that loss is not a tragedy but just the way things are.  Material things come into existence and pass away.  Our pain comes only from our grasping on to things that weren’t made to stay.  We learn to enjoy the things of the world while we have them, and then in time, to gracefully let them go.