Rhythms of Life

When you stand at the ocean’s edge, you experience the rhythm of the waves. Coming in to the shore, water pushes up onto the beach or splashes upon rocks, then seems to pause a moment before pouring back into the sea. 

If you stay a day or several, you also see the tidal pulse, the rhythm of ocean, as it rises over time and then recedes.

Expand your gaze now to a broader view, and you notice the rhythm of the seasons. There are countless ways to see the Law of Rhythm reflected in the world around you.

The Law of Rhythm
Nature demonstrates the Law of Rhythm eloquently in all its subtleties and extremes. The earth-based cultures throughout time have known that there are more than the four primary seasons. There are the mid-points between them, and mid-points between those, each with characteristics and cycles of life. Each is required for the full cycle of life to unfold. We live those seasons, too, in our bodies, in our cultures, in our economies.

The Law of Rhythm tells us that all things change, continuously. What goes out must come in. As something contracts, it also expands, just as you do with your breath. There is perpetual motion, one expression or action leading to the next. All great literature and our world’s religions through their scriptures and tomes, follow the Law of Rhythm. So, too, does soul-level transformation.

The Law of Rhythm says that we ebb and flow. While we aspire to grow at all times, growth is not just perpetual increase. Growth is contraction and expansion. If you are in a big growth or expansion phase, create room for your contraction, and know that contracting in this way is not the opposite of growth. It is the ebb to your flow. It may be that you need time to grieve or are called on to release aspects of your life that are challenging for you to let go of.

If you resist the ebb, it would be like a deciduous tree in autumn refusing to allow its leaves to wither and fall. It must allow this stage of life to take place — for what comes in winter will require it to have let go of what is “done.” Winter is not a dead season. There is life happening all around. You simply may not be able to see it as it moves underground or more slowly in the quiet of the season.

Be patient with your Soul’s Timing, as you ebb and flow in life.

To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance...
​
Ecclesiastes 3:1

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The above is an excerpt from Sacred Truths, a book of poetic, inspiring insights to Living a Life of Joy, Meaning and Love. Available on amazon.