Cycles Of Life

Have you ever noticed just how many things in our lives, things we pay attention to, and things we don’t, run in cycles? Most people, because we have all been taught this way, tend to see time and seasons as being linear, that is going from one point to another, in a straight line, rather than it being circular or more of a repeating cycle, yet the evidence for it being circular are all around us. Take something simple as the daily cycle; the sun comes up in the morning, and as the world slowly turns on its axis, crosses the sky and then sets, evening follows and in the morning the process starts all over again. The moon, not to be out done, also goes in cycles. If you follow the Jewish calendar, you can always guarantee that the moon will be full in the middle of the month, in fact if you pay close attention you can mark your calendar by the phases of the moon and it will always be the same year after year. The weather does the same, we have spring followed by summer, followed by fall then winter, some winters are colder than others, some summers hotter, but always the seasons follow each other. Watch the trees, every year they do the same thing during the appropriate seasons, the leaves bud and then bloom and eventually die, fall off the trees and then, after a winters rest, they start all over again.

Even nations tend to rise and fall in cycles. All around the world you can see evidence of powerful nations that once were here. Those nations rose to power from nations that had come before them and eventually lost their power to others that came after. There are even some places where they don’t know who the original people or civilizations was because the more they dig the more they find and the more they realize that they are just scratching at the surface of what once was. But no matter how you look at it even this goes in cycles.

What about our lives? Do they run in cycles as well? Certainly we all know, that we are born, we live and then die, but what about after that? Does our spirit, our souls, carry on into another realm or dimension? Do we go on to live in another body here on the earth? Do we just die and become worm dirt? It’s probably one of the most difficult questions to answer because what you believe tends to be based on what you were taught. When you read the stories in the bible of when someone died the common phrase was that “they were gathered to their people”.  Judaism and Christianity both believe that when the Messiah comes that there will be a physical resurrection of the dead while in places such as India they believe that how you live your next life will be determined by the life you are living now and still other religions believe that you reincarnate until you reach perfection and become a “god.” The truth of the matter is that none of us really know. Some will point to their sacred scriptures and say but we do know because it says this( pick your this) but the fact remains no one knows for sure. I personally tend to believe that just as everything else in nature recycles, our spirits either return to G-D who gave us the breath of life in the first place, or we move on to another life  but I really don’t know either.

I think Solomon in Ecclesiastes sums it up pretty well.

That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, See this is new? It has already been in ancient times before us. There is no remembrance of former things, Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. Eccl. 1: 9-11

So I guess if even Solomon in his wisdom could see that everything that has happened before will happen again and there is nothing new and he could see that there also would be no remembrance of those things as well, then I guess that it’s OK if I don’t have all the answers. I will instead just be thankful to G-D that I can see the cycles that go on in nature and that in seeing those cycles it gives me hope of new life and renewal, whether it be in the kingdom to come, or in another life.

Shalom