The cycle of life and our lives

As a kid, I remember the family going down to the orchard at the main crossroads not far from our house, taking along our own cider jugs to buy gallons of freshly made cider (and drinking what we could while we were there) because that was the only time of year you could get it. After all, they were local apples and they didn't ripen until fall. End of story. Now, you can get any kind of apple juice you want any time you want it, and so it's not special anymore. Not much is special anymore. And when nothing is special, nothing is appreciated. When nothing is appreciated, nothing is valued. It simply diminishes our lives.

Another important, and for me, favorite, time of year is the late summer/early fall when the wine is harvested. Of course, that's only really significant to those of us who live in wine-growing regions, though I'm sure that each region has its own special products or customs. At any rate, it is at harvest time that we get new wine, and along with it, the local bakers start making onion and other quiches, because that's what you eat when you're drinking new wine. We only get them at that time of year, and there is a deeply satisfying and enriching feeling when you have them because you know that you haven't had them for a year and it's going to be another year before you get them again. These are aromas, tastes, sensations and feelings that happen only in 12-month intervals.

That our lives plays out in cycles is nothing new. The Ancients knew it and in fact entire civilizations endured for millennia based primarily on this simple principle. Don't get me wrong: I have no intention or desire to "turn back the clock" (an interesting phrase in itself) to an earlier age. I'm not making the case that there was a time when things were simply better. What I am saying is that recognizing and acknowledging the cycles of life enriches our individual lives. It's really very simple.

To be sure, globalization is taking its toll. We're so overwhelmed with everything anytime and anywhere that we can't tell the difference between what is and what is not, what is meaningful and what is merely mundane. We don't mark our times, our pathway through the year. We aren't aware of the cycles of nature and we're the poorer in spirit, if nothing else, because of it.