Often, this is not necessarily a pleasant season - particularly for the pertinent participants. Aging not only embraces wisdom, experience and understanding, it also demands at times that we embrace pain and physical incapacity and letting go...of who we were, our youthful appearances...our facile mentality. This job description is not for sissies...or anyone with any semblance of a remaining ego!
Just yesterday, this aforementioned friend explained to me her first impression and comprehension - at a very young age, of 'the circle of life', the continuum that connects birth and death. It includes the coming...and the going, the loss and the gain, the births AND the deaths.
The entire Universe celebrates this same process; stars are born and then expire, bacteria and viruses cause us disease and then they die and we heal, babies arrive...parents leave us.
So how do we 'navigate' this 'circle'..when we're involuntarily dropped into its middle? Sometimes words and feelings are the only 'glue' that keep us from falling apart. This same aforementioned friend sent me her healing words many months ago when I was faltering, not participating in this 'circle' as I needed to. I add them here because they are uplifting and supporting...and I think she can use a little of her 'own medicine' about now. So, I 'remind' her here, of her innate 'higher self' that is there to hold her hand, give her feet the energy to continue on their path, regardless of the 'hills and valleys' that lie directly ahead.
"There are things in life that just make no sense whatsoever - whether you have strong faith or not. Disease and growing old are two of those things.
W e both love the sunrises and sunsets. They continue on... If there is a sunset, there will be a sunrise. The magnificence of nature brings us both joy. Life is like the continuum of nature --- the sunrise is birth, the dawn of a new day. We live through the morning, absorb the sunlight of prosperity during the day, and squeeze the last drops of sunlight out of the day (ie: old age, death, disease), long after the sun has gone down.
But...there is a sunrise the next morning. No matter how desperate the day ends, the sun will come up tomorrow. Life is a circle and just as it ends --- so it will begin. In my belief, that beginning is in heaven. That's where faith takes me.
In nature --- that beginning comes with the dawn. Although there's disease, death, and the night is full of marauders who thrive in the darkness, with the morning comes fingers of light and life. You appreciate the morning. But, I know that you understand the night too. Without the nighttime, there would be no morning.
When you're feeling down --- wait, patiently for the dawn... It's there, within your reach, just hold on tight and be patient".My friend is Christian; though I am not, we share a biblical verse that holds deep meaning for us both. This verse helps guide me through some of life's more difficult times, assists my understanding of this sometimes incomprehensible...'circle of life' we belong to in this world.
A Time for Everything
1 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
2 A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.
5 A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; a time to be silent and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. http://biblebrowser.com/ecclesiastes/3-1.htm
I send you PEACE, my friend.
As always, Nature prevails.
All photos on this blog are taken by and property of Danielle Simone.
