When we contemplate impermanence, we're basically looking at the facts of life  •  the fact is that we all die; we all have losses, sorrow and heartbreak  •  we don’t contemplate impermanence as a way to overcome it, but as a way to figure out how to live with it—and even how to honor it  •  this is the world that we have, and without this ever-changing world, none of us would be here  •  impermanence is not only about loss; it is also about fresh arising  •  it is about possibility  •  there are occasions—for example, at the moment of birth and at the moment of death—when we encounter that meeting point of the falling away and the fresh arising on the spot, and those moments are very powerful  •  we’re at that edge where the two sides meet  •  the contemplation of impermanence can help bring us to that experience of fresh arising  •  it can help acquaint us with that edge, that non-dual point  •  we can begin to have glimpses that whatever arises is fresh; whatever arises is the essence of realization.