Cycles of life — always there; always changing
Feb 3rd, 2009 by spaceagesage
As I’ve noted in my last posts, I’m studying the ancient and timeless wisdom found in the book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible, starting with the passage I wrote about here.
Each line of this passage describes life’s unchanging and changing natures by showing opposites that aren’t in contradiction, but rather part of a spiral or cycle. The first lines are:
A time to be born and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
Having grown up on a farm where we had a small herd of cattle, these words make sense to me on a deep level. Animals, for the most part, have shorter life spans than we do. Watching their life cycles in miniature to ours helped me realize early on that all life begins and ends within a bubble of time.
In other areas of our lives, many things are born and die: ideas are born and die, emotions are born and die, friendships are born and die.
Once we understand the cyclical nature of life, we plant where we hope the most healthy growth will develop. It takes a while to learn this, so sometimes we have to uproot what is planted. For example an alcoholic may plant friendships with a bunch of hard-drinking buddies, but then realize she must uproot from those friendships for awhile to get sober. The same applies to drug addicts, gang members, or those whose “friends” use them more than love them.
The planting and uprooting concept also applies to work. Some of us are being uprooted because of recent economic downturns and some of us are choosing to make changes for the better. In the later case, Sean of the blog Writer Dad has moved from running a pre-school with his wife to working online as a writer and entrepreneur. He writes of his sink or swim life changes:
Drive to work, finish the week, cash your paycheck, purchase the essentials (alongside the frivolities), buy some more, refinance, drench yourself in sweat the second the economy buckles…I’d rather sink or swim. The old way just isn’t enough …If life isn’t working, change your behavior. Do without. Go hungry. A diet doesn’t have to be about food. Find what you want from life, then figure out a way to work toward it. I knew what I wanted, and I gave myself a year. Half the pages have fallen from that calendar and right now I’m surrounded by nothing but blue.
(Feel free to drop by and encourage him and his family!)
The comedian George Carlin had a completely different take on life and cycles which I have to include here as a bit of levity on such a heavy subject:
The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating … and you finish off as an orgasm.
How do you see life cycling around you?
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Photo credit: speech path girl
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Hi Lori. I like George Carlin’s perspective of looking at life in a backwards sequence. I don’t think I’ve ever seen life as a cycle in the sense that it is cycling around me. I see my life as a straight line. I’ve come to accept that one day… well, you know…. Of course I fear that day, but I don’t believe it’s truly the end. What is sad is how society looks at you differently and how health becomes more delicate. To me, that is the end of life.
Hi Lori,
I have to agree with Davina – George Carlin had a pretty good perspective going!
After reading here, I really am seeing this verse in a whole new light – I think I tended to take it so literally. And yet, it can apply in so many areas of our lives. And that’s a perspective I’m really liking right now!
Oh, and Sean is living this – boldly – and that’s a great example to all of us!
I think of cycles and my kids in school. Now is a time for them to be in school, and for us, as parents to nurture and love them. A time will come, not that many years down the road, when they will uproot – move on – and while we’ll still love and nurture them – it will be a time for us to uproot what we have planted – and send them out into the world…
The opposite of death is not life, it is birth. There is no opposite to life. Life simply is. Events take place, deeds get done, but there never is a doer thereof. If we can understand this, questions like whether life is a circle or a straight line get answered.
Hi All,
Just wanted to say how much I enjoy hearing and learning from those of you who comment — you guys rock!
Hi Davina,
I used to believe in linear time lines and to some extent still do, but so much cycles around within those lines.
Aging can seem scary, but much of that comes from idolizing perfection, youth, glamor, glitz, and being cool. In other societies, aging is honored and respected.
Hi Lance,
The amazing thing about scripture is that it holds much depth — The Word really is living and powerful — changing hearts and minds that are open to it.
Hi Rummuser,
You write, “The opposite of death is not life, it is birth.” The writer of Ecclesiastes says the same, expressing the opposites this way “A time to be born and a time to die.” He says nothing here of life, either.
“…there is never a doer thereof…”? Sounds like fate. I know there are forces and cycles of life and nature, but I’m a big free will fan, myself.
The commenting function to your latest post has been turned off. Still, I thought that I would like to say that I would be missing your words until you decide what’s to be next. It’s true that I may come from a physically distant country but I believe that my blogging journey has been enriched much because of friendships like yours.
What the comedian George Carlin has proposed sure sounds like a theme similar to the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. While we watch events around us “live” and “die” in the cycle of life, we learn to make peace with them.
Blessings to you and your family for continued good health and well being!
Evelyn