My sweetie played a beautiful piano concert Saturday afternoon.The audience applauded. Then, an hour later, it was all over. Ten months of practice, several months of planning for the November concert and for this January concert, the applause–it’s all over.

Sweetie kept reviewing the pieces in his mind, replaying them for himself. This is a form of stress. He kept reviewing the critical comments that a couple of friends made. “The piano was too loud.” This is a form of stress. He wondered why certain friends hadn’t come. This is a form of stress. He congratulated himself on having played a masterful concert. This too is a form of stress, because even though it’s a pleasant memory, that pleasantness comes to an end after a few seconds, and the ending of pleasantness is unpleasant.

We all go through these mind machinations about something or other. It’s not wrong; it’s simply what the mind does. Recognizing these machinations as stressful, they become ever so slightly easier to let go of. Oh, that again.

Wonderful things end. Beautiful concerts. Applause. Praise. Notice how the ego wants to recreate itself by re-living the experience. These little insights help us deconstruct the ego. Noticing the transience of all experience helps us let go. And we may as well let go because, well, it’s gone already.