I just watched Train Dreams and found it beautiful and deeply moving. It’s about universal themes of loss and impermanence, and I suspect it feels especially universal because of where it unfolds – in nature.
For me, it’s a reminder of my own grief and loss, and that it’s personal in that it’s happening here in this life, and it’s universal in that it’s shared by all life and all living beings.
Also, as life shows us, loss is what allows for something new. Impermanence is inherent in all experience, and it’s what allows anything new to be. Without it, nothing would be at all. Without it, I wouldn’t have this experience and this life. Without it, nothing that I love would exist.
The death of this experience allows space for the next. The death of one phase of my life allows the next phase. The death of individuals opens up space for new individuals. The death of species allows for new species. The death of one or a few particular stars allowed for this living planet.
Impermanence is the mother and father of everything that exists.