Loving the Ebb & Flow of Life

Today I was thinking a lot about the randomness of life. And also how we come to this new time each year where we hope for a better round, we imagine what could be different for ourselves, and perhaps we lament the year gone by -- opportunities missed, relationships changed or lost, and worst of all, may have a sense that another year has gone by with nothing changed.

I was thinking back to a time in my life when each year felt like a huge struggle and how New Year's brought more upset and anxiety than hope. 

One of the things I came across in my journey that helped shift my perspective about life is the following poem by Henley.



What Is To Come
William Ernest Henley (1892)

What is to come we know not. But we know
That what has been was good—was good to show,
Better to hide, and best of all to bear.
We are the masters of the days that were;
We have lived, we have loved, we have suffered...even so.

Shall we not take the ebb who had the flow?
Life was our friend? Now, if it be our foe—
Dear, though it spoil and break us! —need we care
      What is to come?

Let the great winds their worst and wildest blow,
Or the gold weather round us mellow slow;
We have fulfilled ourselves, and we can dare
And we can conquer, though we may not share
In the rich quiet of the afterglow
      What is to come.



I love this reminder that what is to come is varied and beautiful.  To love the ebb and flow. 

My favorite line, "We are the masters of the days that were; We have lived, we have loved, we have suffered... even so." --- what a powerful thought -- that the past bends to our will, our perspective, our choice about what it was all for and about.

How can you embrace the ebb and flow?


 
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