Promise of Renewal in the Process of Decay

“Can you see the seeds of darkness

 in the brightness of the day

and the promise of renewal

in the process of decay…..”

                           author unknown

These words have stuck in my mind since doing ritual a short while ago.  To me, they speak of the cycle of life.  They remind us to recognize where we are in that cycle. To breathe into wherever we are in this moment.  And to await change with as much patience and grace as we can muster.  For change will inevitably come.

Before cutting down this past season’s peony foliage, I scratched around in the soil at the roots to find

Fall Peony

the tiniest pink nubbins of next year’s shoots.  The seeds of tomorrow. 

Then I got down even closer to the soil and inhaled the fragrant thyme plants, a mere 6 inches tall.  Brushing my hand over their tough tiny leaves, I also detected the rich, damp smell of Earth.  The Earth that hold us and all of life through the dark months coming.

To me, this is Beauty in this season of decay.  The compost of the time we are living today, grows the rich life we will be living soon.

I thought about the mystery inherent in life.  About how, even when I can’t seem to find my way between one step and the next, that that next step somehow appears.  In some mysterious way, from the vantage point of having taken that next step, I see that the seeds were there all along.  I come to recognize that, even when I hadn’t a clue how life might unfold, Mystery led me onwards.

It is in darkness, like a seed, that we gestate and grow towards light, towards the possibilities that await. In darkness light appears. 

We live in cycles, spirals.  Situations come around.   Perhaps holding an echo of the past, just as the falling leaves are familiar.  We have opened to and recognized the possibility of tomorrow in the lives we leave behind.  We who, in the midst of the detritus of decay, find the promise of renewal.

Tomorrow is always new.