This article was originally published in 2017.
"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning." - T.S. Eliot
According to the Kabbalistic calendar, this is the week where we start again at the beginning of the Torah. With it, we are warmly greeted by a wave of fresh energy for renewal, rejuvenation and change.
And yet in the midst of the newness, let us remember that the nature of Life is complete connection – like the infinity sign, or a circle. In our finite bodies we experience definite edges, endings and new starts, ups and downs; but the reality is that it is all a continuum of energy. As the third law of thermodynamics tells us, energy cannot be destroyed, it simply changes form. The world and everything in it may be totally different today that than it was twenty years ago or ten years ago or how it will be twenty years or thirty years from now, but nevertheless that singular Life Force still exists. Even in death, there is no separation. The soul is everlasting and eternal.
I often hear people question, "Why do I need to change? Can't I just do it the next time around? Why do I need to think about caring, sharing, or contributing to the whole right now?" And the answer to that, so it says in the kabbalistic writings, is that yes, you may come back again, but it is best not to bank on that because there is the possibility of incarnating in a different form – with a fur coat and four legs perhaps.
I don't say that to be a downer, but because we are turning a page in our lives, individually and collectively. We want to write our new chapter so that it is different than the last. We want to take full advantage of the incredible year ahead to advance our purpose in this world. And what that requires is a willingness to embrace our evolution, to find out how we can be more aligned with our True Self, and to look inward at what we can rearrange moving forward.
It is our gift as human beings to decide how our story will go. Just as a tree grows bare in winter time and come spring it grows its fruits, flowers and leaves, so too is it that our life passes in cycles. In each one, we are brought chances to develop our spiritual nature by transforming negative to positive, by amending those difficult aspects of ourselves into light for the benefit of all.
Especially in these times, when everyone is talking of world change. And in fact we (humanity) are the only ones who have the capacity to make it happen. We don't have to change every bad habit in one fell swoop. I've always said the best way to make changes is one by one, little by little, experience by experience, with a conscious mind and an awakened heart. Like that, we can tend the garden of our spiritual being and blossom into more of who we are meant to become.
