I remember the first time I noticed the creation-destruction cycle in action. I was at work, in a back office, and one of the employees walked in the room and said something. In that instant, I knew it had nothing to do with what he said, or how he said it, or even that he said anything at all, but suddenly the entire world had changed somehow and would never be the same again. I just knew this, could feel it.

As an Artisan, that's what we're doing all the time: creating worlds and then tearing them apart again. Building. Destroying. Part of the challenge of being an Artisan is not getting too caught up in any part of the process. It works best if you can just let it flow.

But that's challenging. We're human — we become attached to the way things have been, whether it's the way we perceive someone we are close to, or the way we perceive ourselves, or the way our life has been going. We can't help this. We live on the physical plane and as such experience life in a linear fashion.

But the Artisan is constantly being challenged by this. We build things, and then they fall apart. We have to let go. I find it disconcerting, often, until I recognize, "oh yes, that's what's happening now." And then I choose to let go of the old way I perceived that person, or the old world I lived in. That's how you find the flow.

True, I'm more comfortable feeling that I am creating rather than feeling that my creations are being destroyed and are falling apart. But the Buddhist principle of annica applies here — impermanence. For one thing, there's nothing you can do about any of this. What was created will be destroyed. Plants grow and then die and in spring they grow again. People are born and then die and reincarnate to live again. letting go of feeling you have to control any of this — because you can't control it anyway — makes things much easier.