The World is Round
If you know me personally, you've probably heard the contents of this essay before. It's something I come around to every so often, a thought that both consoles and humbles.
The world is round. We see circles and spheres everywhere, glimpse the roundness in the subtle curve of the horizon. The wheel of the year turns through the seasons and into the next year without stopping. Day rises out of night and descends there again. The moon waxes and wanes only to grow full again. On a more personal level, we experience this roundness in going out and coming home, inhaling and exhaling, and a thousand other round trips we make in our daily lives.
This isn't a new idea. Philosophers and mystics, musicians and even farmers have recognized the wheels that turn the universe and tuned their lives to the cycles. All things come back where they started and move round again. Likewise, the tides of luck, relationships, energy, all obey this cosmic rule.
It's tempting to see the world from your current point on the wheel and think that where you are is forever. We reflect and say, "How did I end up this way?" but the truth is that we are only ever moving through. All endings, happy or otherwise, are illusory.
While this perspective is, of course, a great comfort when you're struggling or caught in despair, you'll find it's also a boon in happier times. Knowing that good fortune is fleeting helps us to recognize and appreciate it all the more when we experience it. Gratitude, like joy and sorrow, enriches our souls.
Simultaneous awareness of the wheel and all our points along it, viewed with our current point in mind, provides the greatest serenity, the deepest understanding. We are always at each of an infinite number of points in time and always moving, too. We can find joy in our sorrow because we know it in the context of its circle. We are free to absorb the wisdom it offers because we are no longer mired in the belief that the universe is against us. On the other side of the wheel, we can appreciate our good fortune and share our blessings and positive spirit with those in pain.
...Because our wheels may turn at different rates, but we are all part of the same big clockwork universe, and
The world is round. We see circles and spheres everywhere, glimpse the roundness in the subtle curve of the horizon. The wheel of the year turns through the seasons and into the next year without stopping. Day rises out of night and descends there again. The moon waxes and wanes only to grow full again. On a more personal level, we experience this roundness in going out and coming home, inhaling and exhaling, and a thousand other round trips we make in our daily lives.
This isn't a new idea. Philosophers and mystics, musicians and even farmers have recognized the wheels that turn the universe and tuned their lives to the cycles. All things come back where they started and move round again. Likewise, the tides of luck, relationships, energy, all obey this cosmic rule.
It's tempting to see the world from your current point on the wheel and think that where you are is forever. We reflect and say, "How did I end up this way?" but the truth is that we are only ever moving through. All endings, happy or otherwise, are illusory.
While this perspective is, of course, a great comfort when you're struggling or caught in despair, you'll find it's also a boon in happier times. Knowing that good fortune is fleeting helps us to recognize and appreciate it all the more when we experience it. Gratitude, like joy and sorrow, enriches our souls.
Simultaneous awareness of the wheel and all our points along it, viewed with our current point in mind, provides the greatest serenity, the deepest understanding. We are always at each of an infinite number of points in time and always moving, too. We can find joy in our sorrow because we know it in the context of its circle. We are free to absorb the wisdom it offers because we are no longer mired in the belief that the universe is against us. On the other side of the wheel, we can appreciate our good fortune and share our blessings and positive spirit with those in pain.
...Because our wheels may turn at different rates, but we are all part of the same big clockwork universe, and
the World is Round.
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