Читать книгу Before We Say Goodbye: Preparing for a Good Death - Ray Simpson - Страница 26

Full tide, ebb tideLet life’s rhythms flowEbb tide, full tideHow life’s beat must go. DAVID ADAM¹⁰

The ebb tide might be a setback or a disappointment. It might be a low biorhythm or a seasonal disorder. It might be exhaustion or depression after a prolonged period of activity.

By learning to go with the ebb tide, we learn also to go with the incoming tide. There is a time to rest and a time to act. If we fail to practise this rhythm, we fail to become renewed. We become like an overused machine which is fit only for the scrapheap.

Go with the ebb tide and, if the tide comes in again, think that you have prepared yourself for the final ebb time.

We also need to learn to flow with the seasons. We cannot enjoy the autumn if we won’t let go of summer. We can’t experience new life in spring if we have lived through winter at summer’s pace. By learning to go with the rhythm of the seasons, we embrace the cycle of death and rebirth. These cycles reflect in an earthly way a truth about the world of the spirit. If we embrace this, we also embrace death as a friend.

Let go of summer

The leaves are falling gently

In their colours of yellow and brown

Hanging on to the last

Before finally falling down.

Each letter to the earth

Is posted by the wind

For nature knows just what to keep

And what she should rescind.

Though we like to cling to warmth

And the joy of longer days

We need to restock our strength

In store for winter’s ways.

Let us write our own farewell

As the fading summer goes

Seeking a different vision

In the way that nature shows.

STEVE FRANKLIN PALMER¹¹