This too shall pass…

There’s a fable behind the phrase, “this too shall pass” which has origins in Sufi and Hebrew folklore that feels like deep wisdom to me.

I hope this story anchors it for you too.

One day King Solomon asked Benaiah Ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister, “Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish it wear it for Sukkot in six months.”

“If it exists anywhere on earth, majesty, I will find it and bring it to you. But what makes the ring so special?” The king answered “It has magic powers. If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy.”

Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot he took a walk in one of the poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had set out his day’s wares on a shabby carpet.

“Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted forget his sorrows?” asked Benaiah.

He watched the old man take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave somethig on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, he face broke out in a wide smile.

The next morning Solomon asked, “Have you found what I sent you after?” All the minister laughed and Solomon himself smiled.

To everyone’s surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and delared, “Here it is, your majesty!” As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: gimel, zayin, yud, which began the words “Gam zeh ya’avor”-“This too shall pass.”

At that moment Solomon realized that all of his wisdom and weath and power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust.

 

Live moves on. Change is all that is real.

So…

Have YOU found this to be true too?!