“It’s the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life”
-excerpt from Circle of Life Music by Elton John Lyrics by Tim Rice
Sounds familiar? Yep, it was one of the soundtracks of Walt Disney’s The Lion King. It suddenly popped into my head while I contemplated on my Easter Sunday morning–right after I noticed some positive changes in me, one of which happened when Peng, our househelp complained that she got bigger (horizontally) this week… “That’s good, it means we are lucky to have enough food to eat!” I responded enthusiastically.
In the past months I would have joined her and sulked about the extra pounds I gained from being too busy and not having time to exercise. I would have felt bad for myself and with that comes a negative attitude towards other things. And it doesn’t end with that. I would again scold myself for not being able to control some bad habits. AND in the end I usually try to turn everything around as I remember to do everything I’ve learned from positive thinking and meditation. Yes, that’s how it usually goes.
What’s surprising is that, this time, I didn’t even have to do my usual conscious pep talk with myself.
Must be the miracle of God working 
So what’s the connection between my sudden unconscious change and the aforementioned song? It’s what my Lenten reflection drew out… The unending cycle of LIFE. It’s interesting how the bible, other religious scriptures and human his(her)story tells us of the rise and fall of empires, ages, journeys, ideas, and even nature itself. And when I mention nature, it’s two-fold. Nature as in the environment and nature in terms of human nature. (The Garden of Eden is no more and our original values of Peace, Love and Respect had given way to value for money and vices) As surely as this cycle operates in a much larger scale, it also does so in an infinitesimal(in universal standards) scale. A seed from a fruit tree falls on the ground, and with the needed nourishment from the sun and the earth, it grows into a sprout, a seedling, and eventually into a tree which bears fruits of its own then eventually also decays. A child is born, embarks on his/her unique journey of life’s ups and downs and then ultimately grows old and leaves the world again (and takes on another life, if you believe in rebirth and reincarnation like me).
Going back to Lenten season… The fact that this period comes around every year gives me some sense of comfort… It is a great opportunity to look inward and rekindle whatever little flame of hope is left after all the negativities, hurts and and trials that we had gone through for the past year. That although we cannot go back and change the past, we can choose to take off the shackles that had been holding us back and live our lives the way we want to (with God’s inspiration) despite and in spite of everything we have gone through.
In gaining an understanding of this cycle, resiliency and positivity is not so hard to practice. Life becomes more manageable and even fun. The greater challenge is, really learning from experience and putting these lessons into practice so as to prevent a vicious cycle of demoralization from re-occurring out of a great struggle for change. This, however, also requires an understanding of the Law of Karma (which is another topic which I will save for later).
While I savor my mini-victory, I wanna greet everyone a Happy Easter!
