The times they are a changin

I like the night, without the night we would never see the stars. Stephanie Meyer

This week marked the passing and burial of HRM Queen Elizabeth. An icon, the like of which we will never see again in our lifetime. She exemplified stability, and lived a life of servant leadership guided by deeply embedded values of family and duty.  

Her passing combined with the hint of all quarantine measures for incoming passengers into HK being lifted soon is momentous. How fitting today is the fall equinox when day equals night. 

The metaphor of a circle symbolises the changing of seasons, stages of life, etc.  The opposite sides represent polarities such as dawn and dusk, birth and death and as the circle turns, (earth spins), we move from one stage to another. You can't control the perpetual forward momentum ..it is like a rollin stone.

Too often we fixate only on the light without appreciating the dark. Too often we try to control the passage of time without embracing the freedom of a few grey hairs or wrinkles.  

This week reflect on the polarities of your life, identify tension from when you hold on to habits and ways of being that may not serve you now.  Seek out the polarities and realise that Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony. Thomas Merton

Finding Balance

Life is like a bicycle. To maintain your balance you must keep moving forward. Albert Einstein
 
Today is the summer equinox, when night equals day. It signifies the changing of the seasons.  Like the seasons we too must change to grow.  COVID created a state of homeostasis – a self – regulating process to maintain stability while adjusting to changing external conditions.
 
But Life is balance between holding on and letting go. Rumi.  Balance is not something you find, it's something you create. Jana Kinsgsford

 What are you waiting for?

You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes you can steer yourself in any direction you choose. Dr. Seuss

Where will you go?

Turn turn turn

Autumn is a time of productivity, of completion and transition. It asks if that job, project or volunteer role is still life-giving to us and to others. It asks us to consider if the season has changed, if our work there is complete, and if it’s time to transition to something new.  The Book of Ecclesiastes states that To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.   Pete Seeger wrote it and the Byrds recorded it Turn, Turn Turn.

Change is a rearrangement of the furniture. It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive. William Bridges
 
There are only 2 days in the year when nothing can be done. One is called yesterday, and the other is called tomorrow. So today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live. -Dali Lama

For those that need some inspiration...

Don't just read, absorb.
Don't just change, transform.
Don't just relate, advocate.
Don't just promise, prove.
Don't just criticise, encourage.
Don't just think, ponder.
Don't just take, give.
Don't just see, feel.
Don’t just dream, do.
Don't just hear, listen.
Don't just talk, act.
Don't just tell, show.
Don't just exist, live.”
― Roy T. Bennett

Turn turn turn

To everything there is a season.

Last Sunday an acquaintance tragically died through misadventure. This tenuous thread called life is but a blink of time during which we live, love, learn and leave.  Like the seasons, we too shall pass. Yet to live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die. – Thomas Campbell

This weekend we celebrate the passing of spring and the beginning of summer. Nature reminds us that for everything there is a purpose.  King Solomon wrote these words 3000 years ago, Pete Seeger set them to lyrics and the Byrds sang it.  (listen here Turn  )

To everything
There is a season
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may…
 
Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. ~Ruth Ann Schabacker
In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.  It’s the life in your years. -  Abraham Lincoln