I am Forever—With Love
If seasons, go round and round, if the economy goes round & round, if crops are planted & harvested and so on…Do I go round & round? Does my soul repeat its experiences until it gets it right? Interesting…
I spent the spring warmth of this afternoon, weeding the gardens with my son, under the gentle sunbeams. The both of us were crouched on our knees, all gloved up, furiously attacking all weeds everywhere.
As I squatted over bits of garden debris, yanking out Kikuyu, Hydrocotyle, Creeping Oxalis and Hawksbeard, it shot me right back to when I was five. Like a FLASH, I was there in my pink cotton puffer jacket and thick amaranth corduroy pants, getting muddy on my knees, playing by a small running creek, digging and messing around with the plants. Gee! Here I was just over three decades later, doing the exact same thing I was doing when I was five. They say time changes everything. Seems like it changes nothing! No wonder hippies call it an illusion…
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When Summer arrives. It signals a happy period of the year. We’re pumped up to be spending time outdoors with friends & family. And we’re joyful. In most countries Summer will appear at least once a year. —Like clockwork. This gives us a clue regarding the grand design of life. Some of the cliches that allude to this are, “What goes up, must come down,” “A time for every season,” and “A time to be born & a time to die”.
In other words, all is the same, again and again. When we see nature as cyclical—seasons, days & years, birth, marriage, & death, old religions, new religions—we notice that there is never anything new under the sun. It all goes round and round again. The economy goes boom-bust. War and then peace—Peace and then war.
When we first entertain the idea that everything goes round & round, it can be overwhelming or make us feel like there’s no point to anything. That’s where you see all these hedonistic & selfish ideas of live in the moment, only think about yourself, YOLO, if it feels good—do it, and so on. And if all there is to life is plain, boring repetition, I guess YOLO does make for a great mantra. But the nagging feeling that there is something more—this seems to be connected specifically to human consciousness.
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Consciousness is one of the most curious aspects of our reality. We know that science has not been able to prove where consciousness is located in the brain or body, nor how it arises (Goff, 2019). We know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Could consciousness be a type of energy that travels from lifeform to lifeform, gathering subconscious data that is gleaned for further enhancement of future experiences? Maybe.
To those who doubt this idea, that’s okay. You are entitled to your perspective. To those entertaining this notion, I would say, “Right?? Why the heck not? Everything is on repeat, why not you?” From where we’re sitting, it seems there is no way to either prove nor disprove this idea.
However, we do have plenty of accounts which suggest reincarnation to be a strong possibility. Dr. Ian Stevenson studied children who were able to recount very specific details of their former life, many details of which could be verified and there being no other way to explain how they knew this information (Stevenson, 1983).
And if souls go round & round, this would make a lot of sense being that the whole universe seems to be one big, beautiful drama on repeat.
“That’s depressing,” you might think to yourself, “What on earth am I to do stuck inside Groundhog Day?” Well, the only thing you can do of course—play with it.
It’s like reading a book we have already read before. We KNOW how it goes. Therefore, we have nothing to worry or fear about.
Up follows down. Down follows up. The only thing we are guaranteed is…IMPERMANENCE. So, let go of your fear for the unknown, lest you find yourself in resistance to reality.
Instead, accept all things. Accept the cycle. Accept the ride.
And besides play, there is the chance to reflect & advance. Every repeat is a chance to enrich your understanding & experience by deepening the insight, effort, & intention you put into your actions. In other words, we are referring to the POWER of viewing life through the lens of learning & improvement, also known as the Growth Mindset (Dweck, 2006).
Imagine getting to repeat your exam until you get 100%! That’s basically a free pass. Every mistake gets to be done over until it’s right.
It’s like having an inside man at the faculty who is insistent on helping you get good grades. He rigs the system, so you never fail until you succeed. You stuffed up? Okay, that’s all good. Let’s try again. Let’s keep going. You can do it. I believe in you. Study for the test again and when no one’s looking, I’ll simply allow you back into the exam room to re-sit your test.
So embrace this wonderful, maddening, joyous dance that goes round & round. We get to be a part of this amazing phenomenon called life. Let go of your worries & don’t overthink it. Smile, act silly, be brave, try new things, don’t be afraid to fail. Just stay curious and enjoy the ride…
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential. Robinson.
Goff, P. (2019, November 1). Science as we know it can’t explain
consciousness – but a revolution is coming. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/science-as-we-know-it-cant-explain-consciousness-but-a-revolution-is-coming-126143
Stevenson, I. (1983). American children who claim to remember previous
lives. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 171(12), 742–748. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005053-198312000-00006
