Retirement Ebbs and Flows

When we consider the waves of the ocean, the flow of the changing seasons, the wane and ebb of the moon, we find there are rhythms to life.

There is even a rhythm in our own life from birth through childhood and adolescence to full maturity, old age, and finally rebirth of a new generation. Light and electromagnetic impulses of radio are waves.

The movement of the stars and the planets about our sun are rhythmical in nature. So also is the motion of the tiniest particle. The electrons move in a rhythmical pattern about the proton in the atom. 

Nothing about life is static or unchanging. There seems to be a constant wave-like motion to life. It is actually a progression of rhythmical patterns. This is one of the factors in our enjoyment of music.

It would seem wise that we strive to bend and sway with the rhythms of life, and not stand fixed and immobile against them. The sandy beach moves and changes with the rhythms of the waves, and stands for eternity.

The breakwater is soon destroyed. Don't neglect to play and relax regularly. Review your own life. Do you live a rhythmical life? Are you following work with play; mental effort with physical effort; eating with fasting; seriousness with humor; sex with transmutation of sex into other creative effort?

Consider for a moment one of the earlier lessons in which you learned that the subconscious mind worked best when the mind was at rest, best when we live a rhythm of work and play.

The greatest research achievements are produced by the subconscious mind, after it has been loaded with the facts, and the mind is then occupied with other thoughts.

That is, the mind is playing. Are you giving your subconscious mind a chance to work by playing? Metternich, the great statesman, often received his most brilliant inspiration while finishing a book he was reading.

It is the interference with the normal rhythmical patterns of the stomach that may produce ulcers. Is it not our failures that make our success so sweet? The calm, refreshed beauty after the storm is exquisite, when each wet leaf and blade of grass sparkles with new beauty in the first rays of the sun, and the air is clear and fresh.

The magnitude of nature's beauty is enhanced because of the storm. Do you really want continuous happiness? No, for happiness would lose its zest. It is really those little unhappinesses that make happiness meaningful. 

In marriage counseling, one of the problems is to make couples understand that there is no such thing as being constantly in love, nor would it be desirable if it could be achieved.

People in love have a series of loves, like waves on the ocean. In the troughs, they are quite neutral in their feelings. These troughs make the waves of love that much more poignant.

Like life, not all the waves are of the same intensity; there are a few for each of us that reach great heights, and these we store to call out and use when the going becomes difficult. 

Thus, this mind-body of ours, to reach great heights of successful living and smooth, efficient functioning, must first learn to live a rhythmical life, in harmony with the world of living and non-living things about us, and in harmony with natural laws that govern these rhythms of life.

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