This past weekend my topic of contemplation for the Weekend Challenge was Forever vs Eternal.
I realized a couple of interesting points.
The first idea that came to mind almost instantly was that forever is a freezing. Forever is this Now moment and all of its circumstances continuing, unchanged, for all time.
Forever is stagnation.
The concept of eternal and eternity, on the other hand, do not have this same frozen state. Eternity holds change within it. A thing that is eternal may change form, essence but will still always Be. A thing that is eternal can never not Be.
Eternal is a continuing unfolding.
Another realization that I had is that forever is still very much inside of time while eternal feels like it is beyond time. A Being.
And eternal thing may experience time for a while, but it does not exist within it. Forever depends on time, needs time to even exist.
We cause ourselves so much stress and sorrow because we are grasping at forever not realizing that we are eternal.