Introduction by Ryan Shelton: I met Devika through a mutual friend at Dhamma Delaware shortly after her first course. She started getting involved with dhamma service immediately and we became friends through our service together. It has been exciting to see her grow in dhamma over the last 2 years, and I look forward to more movies, dinners, and games in the future.

Dhamma Story: I would like to share my experience from early Jan 2017. I woke up to an icy and freezing rainy Saturday morning. It irritated me as I would be confined indoors for rest of the Saturday. Finally getting out of the bed, I looked out of the window. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel gloomy anymore; in fact the light, powdered snow that covered trees and the grass looked beautiful. I made myself a nice, hot masala tea and pulled my tea table near the patio. The branches of tree that leaned towards the patio were covered in tiny icicles. Listening to the beautiful acoustic rendition of the song “La Vie En Rose” by Louis Armstrong and sipping my tea, I sat enjoying the view outside.

The hobbyist in me persuaded me to pick up the camera and capture the icicles. I watched as few icicles started to melt slowly. I remembered the law of impermanence and in that moment another realization dawned on me – enjoy all the good things and moments while they last, but don’t be sad when they are over. As for the bad things and phases, they will change too, so just be strong and patient and keep learning and gathering experience from such phases.

I was thankful to the nature for yet again teaching the lesson of “change” with something so simple and so beautiful.