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This past May marked two of the most, dare I say, monumental days of my life. The first was my son’s first birthday, also the day I celebrate as my own rebirth. For on the day my son left my body and entered this world I became someone new. It should be of no surprise then that the second monumental day was Mother’s Day. One year, which in the grand scheme of things is not that long a time. Yet never before would I have believed that so much could transpire in just 365 days. In only one year I had lived and died countless lives. This May, I remembered, learned from and celebrated them all. Such a notion seems absurd and downright morbid at first, I know. But it is not a foreign concept in many areas of spiritual pursuit. In fact my yogic journey has for many years taught me to recognize and remember the realities of birth and death with every inhalation and exhalation. The breath in its natural state is the perfect reminder that all things come and go. That everything we encounter is in a perpetual state of gorgeous flux. If we’re doing our spiritual work we come to see that we’re really just along for the ride. We see this now, with the changing of the seasons—when the brilliant reds and oranges of autumn finally submit to winter’s icy grip. The Earth becomes hardened by the gentle stillness of death. Yet below the surface, deep down where we can’t see, the seeds of new life have already begun to sprout. Spring is a joyous eruption of color and warmth. Each day an explosion of birth and unlimited potential. The world literally being recreated in front of our eyes. If we’re paying attention. The ancient yogis spoke of our interconnectedness with all of life. They studied what they saw in nature as a means to experience what existed outside of them within. Reinforcing the belief that separateness is in fact, an illusion. Further reinforcing that which is found in the natural world, i.e., earth, water, air, fire, space, are indeed, that which also make up our own miraculous forms. Therefore, everything that happens outside of us in nature also happens inside of every living being gracing this earth. The idea of contemplating the reality of death as a means to empower us to live a more fulfilling life is by no means a new one. Death, we know, will come to us all. It comes in one form or another every single day. Remember your exhalations — though for the most part this is not something we want to think about. Yet, if we look closely we might start to see that without death there is in actuality, no living. Shortly after my son was born I stood with him in my arms gazing out at the tranquil sea. In that moment of bliss I was struck with a lighting bolt of realization. At once I understood with perfect clarity that every single decision I had ever made had led me to that very moment. Everything I had ever done, every relationship I ever had, every loss, every gain, all the endings and beginnings were the deaths that had accumulated throughout my life resulting in the greatest, most profound, miraculous birth I could ever imagine. Life and death, birth, rebirth, letting go and beginning again, these are all two sides of the same coin. Ironic as it may seem, some of our greatest living will come only as a result of the dying.
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