Rebirth

Rebirth is often required, but only possible when we are not tied to our own self-knowledge, or to the perceptions of the people who know us deepest, longest.

When is rebirth required? When life begins to feel long, and we search beyond ourselves for meaning, for energy, for pleasure because we are tired of what we know of ourselves, when we presume there is nothing more to discover within, and feel that we don’t want what we have.

How does this happen, the blindness to the mystery within? Our lives become summations of our most repetitive thoughts and behaviors, the characteristics that remain from our childhood, the residue of past experiences that solidify into stability while we attend to anything, everything else.

The ideas, beliefs that caught us when we were young are now deeply rooted, and fruiting into the substance of our visible lives. The ways in which we love, the work we choose to do, what we do when we choose not to work.

But how much do we choose, really?

How much we choose is inverse to how much we repeat: the repetitive thoughts, behaviors are the autopilot, what we do with low energy, little attention, rote reactions to anything from emotions to the time of day.

To choose, to feel the need for a rebirth and act on that, requires that we change what we repeat, or at least how. Instead of rote repetitions, we can bring the energy of awareness to create refinement, a pattern that is not random but purposeful.

When we alter the basic repetitions of our life: the routines, the reactions, then we find what is original, fresh, and refreshing within ourselves. The body itself will change, as will perceptions of what we always took for granted.

This change in vision allows us to see what we hold within us. Sometimes the holding onto the patterns, the identity, we chose long ago is what holds us back— then we have the option to release, to reach for another sense or to feel the freedom of not holding on what served us long ago.

Other times, we see the intelligence of our own roots. Like plants, ideas have a way of searching out what is most nourishing, best for growth. We find our own space, water, the light of awareness and the love of the people who will uplift us in every phase of refinement and rebirth.