Learning to Adapt Gracefully to the Natural Cycles of Our Lives

<em>Giotto di Bondone, Scenes from the Life of Christ, Entry Into Jerusalem (detail).</em>
Giotto di Bondone, Scenes from the Life of Christ, Entry Into Jerusalem, Capella di Scrovegni, Padua (detail).

by Dr. Marcel Hernandez, ND

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted.

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

I was first inspired by these magnificent words in the 1960s, when an American rock group, The Byrds, recorded “Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)” – an adaptation of the wonderful Biblical verses by folksinger Pete Seeger. (Watch The Byrds sing it.)

It inspires me still. Though I first resonated with the message sixty years ago, the meaning steadily deepened as I traversed the turnings of a long and fulfilling life – through marriage, medical school and practice, fatherhood and grandfather-hood, patient care, and the passings of dear friends and family.

Dr. Marcel Hernandez, NDWhich, of course, is not to forget the more intimate and unavoidable personal challenges of body, mind, and soul.

The cycles of life are powerfully shaped by the rhythmic returns of the cosmos which include the birth and death of stars, the movements of celestial bodies reflected in the cycles of the seasons, the tides and the cycles of sea and land on Earth.

The human body has its cyclical change as it develops in the womb, is born, and matures into adulthood, then inevitably dies.

“We think of these as separate lives,” a Tibetan Buddhist teacher reminds us. “But they are not separate lives. They are one life.”

What separates us from other organisms is our ability to adapt and to lessen the impact of change.  Modern hygiene and the blending of traditional and conventional medicine can help us survive the transitions of human life with grace. 

But … this is where it gets sticky, because there are many of us who adapt poorly to life’s inevitable changes. Many even live in perennial outrage at the “unfairness” of the unavoidable.  

Remember Popeye the Sailor Man? I’m old enough to sing along mentally:

I’m Popeye the Sailor Man
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man
I yam wot I yam
And that’s all wot I yam
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man

And, after all, doesn’t it ring true at some misty spiritual level? Wise sages tell us that, at the deepest level of our being, we are inextricably and forever one with the Cosmic Creative Intelligence that made us.  

We dress appropriately for the changing seasons. Our health and happiness depend on our skill at flowing in harmony with the rhythms of feast and fallow, summer and winter, heat and cold, scarcity and plenty.

Not to mention the recurring events of our physiology: sleeping, waking, eating eliminating, and the ebb and flow of human relationships, sociality, and seclusion.

And, well – yikes! It isn’t always a smooth ride.

If we could know with all-pervading certainty right down to our cells that this creation floats on a sea of consistent, rhythmic, patterned changes, would it not cushion the bumps as we navigate the shifting currents of our lives?

This fundamental understanding suggests strategies for adapting gracefully to the cycles of change.

And, well, there’s really no need to strain the old noggin. Don’t think too hard about it – simply be aware that cycles permeate all creation, and see if it you can make better headway by simply relaxing and going with the flow.  

You might try to deep your awareness of the eternal, unchanging Presence at the silent core of your own inner being. This is the purpose of meditation – in particular, the practice of listening to the inner sounds – a practice which, done regularly, deepens our awareness of the blissful Cosmic Aum that sustains all creation, including ourselves.

Take care of yourself.  Be kind to others.  Express gratitude even in small things. Make good choices.  Surrender the compulsions of personal desire– what have they ever done for you?  

Don’t let yourself get lost in the endless melodramas into which so many human beings let themselves be swept away when they lose their spiritual footing.  

Understand that you are part of the eternal cycle of existence.  And when you’re feeling overwhelmed by the changes, know with a clear inner certainty that “This, too, shall pass.”

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