The Way Life Goes

A pattern I've noticed throughout every expression of nature & every religion is this fundamental truth:

Life is just a cycle of life/death/life

Recently I've come closer to understanding the art to live and let live & to die and let die.... and to repeat it again.

This truth is reflected in Buddhism with reincarnation. This truth is reflected in Christianity when Jesus lived, died on the cross, and then lived again.

This truth is reflected in nature when life on earth existed (dinosaurs), died (meteor), and lived again (humans).

This is reflected on the economic scale where things are being born (innovation), then being destroyed because they become obsolete, then being born again, but this time better (re-innovation).

I'm starting to understand that nothing can grow forever. Things that grow too long become overbearing, monstrous & harmful. We need periods of nothingness to clear the path and lay the groundwork for what's to come.

I think the cycle of death comes for me in periods where I've experienced all there is to experience in that stage of life. When i hit the ceiling. It's when the beliefs, identity, & habits that brought me to that point are suddenly no longer equipped to carry me forward.

So in moments where i feel stuck, like I’ve hit a wall or I'm running in a circle, I'm trying to remember that these times are not only inevitable but they are essential for me to be reborn into something greater, and to experience life with more depth and understanding.

The old self lives, dies, the new self lives again but this time with more compassion, understanding, wisdom & strength … and then the cycle repeats itself.

In the midst of the death of the old self, I’m giving myself permission to mourn her but to still understand that I will never find peace standing in the ruins of what i used to be.

The new life I seek is going to cost me my old one.