If you interpret these sayings as “just wait around without doing anything and the problem will fix itself”, then you’re missing the point. The point is that everything is always changing, and that includes the situations in our lives and how we feel about them.

When you’re at the bottom of a slump, it often feels like it’s going to stay that way forever. But this feeling is an objectively false view of reality. Reminding yourself that “this too shall pass” can help to cut back on the despair and allow you to focus on taking steps to prepare/help the healing process rather than just giving up because right now it seems like it’s pointless, life is suffering, God is a lie but the Devil is real, and everything will suck more and more forever.

If it happens past your lifetime, it doesn’t matter. So for sure it’ll pass. These sayings are meant to apply to you, not history.

I look back to the serenity prayer, which is really just a bit of Buddhism: “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

The Buddhist path is “why is there suffering in the world?” Because of attachment. You want things to stay the same. Things change. You want your parents to live forever. You don’t want to be sick. You wish your job didn’t suck. Why can’t I just win the lottery and have my problems go away? You want to cling to the good times and not have the bad. You can let go of the bad, and the resultant suffering because of it will fade. Letting go is incredibly hard, because our biological bodies are hard wired on routines. But if you can overcome that, and accept that whatever happened, happened, you can move forward. You can’t change the past. And whether you like it or not, time and the world moves forward. You can move forward with it, or let something hold you back.

And just to clarify, I’m an atheist, so my understanding of both the Serenity Prayer and Buddhism are seen through the lense of someone that doesn’t believe in an afterlife or religion in general (strict Buddhism is not a religion). I encourage you to find your own conclusions.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

This is weirdly comforting to me. Suffering may outlast me, but it is not without end.

I once went to a proctologist who had a “This too shall pass” plaque on his desk. I decided to trust him, there and then.

If only enough time got rid of thought terminating cliches. Guess it’s all just a part of God’s plan…

I cringed even writing that in jest.