Nature’s Cycles: Embracing the Rhythm of Birth, Death, and Rebirth

The ongoing cycle of life and death is one of the most fascinating aspects of the natural world. There is a delicate yet enduring balance within it. Consider the life of a tree: the budding of spring, the fullness of summer, the decline and shedding of autumn, the dormancy of winter—only to begin anew in spring. 

This pattern mirrors our own lives. It reflects not only the stages of youth, maturity, aging, and death—followed by the rise of a new generation—but also the inner movements of the soul.  It is the predictable cycle of growth. Richard Rohr describes this pattern of spiritual growth as Order, Disorder, Reorder. 

Order is the stage where everything seems clear and settled. We think we have life figured out. God is good, the world makes sense, and our faith feels steady. 

Then comes Disorder—when the apple cart is overturned. Loss, tragedy, or disillusionment confronts us, and the old answers no longer satisfy. Faith feels fragile. Life feels like it is unraveling. This season can be long and painful, as our assumptions are deconstructed and our certainties dissolve. 

But this is not the end. Beyond disorder lies Reorder. Here, we begin to reintegrate what we have learned, weaving together a larger understanding of life. Reorder does not erase the pain or restore simple answers; instead, it brings a wisdom that allows us to hold paradox and mystery with reverence. It is a kind of rebirth—a new way of seeing and being.

This cycle repeats again and again throughout life. If we never allow our paradigms to be challenged, we remain stuck, stagnant, and stunted. Growth requires change, and change often feels like loss before it feels like renewal. Rather than resisting disorder, can we embrace it? Can we trust that in the fire, the dross is burned away and something truer is revealed? 

Living in AWE helps us walk this path: 

• Aware – Notice the areas of your life where disorder is present. Don’t resist them. Acknowledge and accept them.
• Wonder – Instead of rushing to fix or explain, allow yourself to be amazed that you are still here, still breathing, even in the midst of the mess.
• Embrace – Welcome the pain as a teacher and companion. It may be the doorway to your healing and wholeness. 

The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is not only the story of nature—it is the story of our souls. To live in AWE is to trust this rhythm and to rely upon its Source.

• St. Francis of Assisi: “Sister Death is not to be feared, for she leads us to eternal life.” (Canticle of the Creatures)

• Julian of Norwich: “Death is the passage through which God brings us to new life.” (paraphrased from Revelations of Divine Love)

• Marcus Aurelius: “Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.” (Meditations, Book 9)

• Rumi: “Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” (The Essential Rumi)

• Tao Te Ching 50: “Life and death are part of the same path, two ends of the same journey.”

• Ecclesiastes 3:2: “A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot.” (NIV)

AWE
Aware.  Which quote speaks to you? 
Wonder.  Contemplate what this means to you. 
Enjoy/Engage/Experience.  What is your next step?

• St. John of the Cross: “To die to oneself is to be born anew in the Spirit.” (paraphrased from The Dark Night of the Soul)

• Eckhart Tolle: “Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.” (The Power of Now)

• Laozi (Lao Tzu): “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them—that only creates sorrow.” (Tao Te Ching, ch. 58)

• Rig Veda 10.16.3: “The soul, like the sun, sets only to rise again.”

• John 12:24: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (NIV)

AWE
Aware.  Which quote speaks to you? 
Wonder.  Contemplate what this means to you. 
Enjoy/Engage/Experience.  What is your next step?

• John Henry Newman: “Growth is the only evidence of life.” (Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. 3)

• Thich Nhat Hanh: “Be like a tree in autumn, letting go of the old to make way for the new.” (Peace Is Every Step)

• Tao Te Ching 23: “Nature’s cycles are eternal, teaching us to move in harmony with the Tao.”

• Psalm 104:30: “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.” (NIV)

AWE
Aware.  Which quote speaks to you? 
Wonder.  Contemplate what this means to you. 
Enjoy/Engage/Experience.  What is your next step?

• Origen of Alexandria: “For the end is always the beginning of something else.” (On First Principles, Book II)

• Parker J. Palmer: “When way closes, way will open.” (Let Your Life Speak)

• Khalil Gibran: “The earth delights to feel your bare feet, and the winds long to play with your hair. Life renews itself endlessly.” (The Prophet)

• Zend-Avesta, Yasna 30.7: “The righteous live forever in the light of the Creator’s renewal.”

• Revelation 21:5: “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (NIV)

AWE
Aware.  Which quote speaks to you? 
Wonder.  Contemplate what this means to you. 
Enjoy/Engage/Experience.  What is your next step?

• Chief Dan George: “We are part of a circle of life that stretches beyond our sight.” (My Heart Soars)

• Richard Rohr: “All great spirituality is about letting go.” (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)

• Meister Eckhart: “Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light.” (Selected Writings)

• The Dhammapada 152: “The wise understand that death is not the end but the doorway to another path.”

• Romans 6:4: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (NIV)

AWE
Aware.  Which quote speaks to you? 
Wonder.  Contemplate what this means to you. 
Enjoy/Engage/Experience.  What is your next step?

• Thomas Merton: “Life is a series of deaths and resurrections, each leading us closer to God.” (No Man Is an Island)

• Albert Schweitzer: “The cycles of life and death reveal the sacred rhythm of creation.” (Reverence for Life)

• Rumi: “In dying, we are born again; in losing, we are found.” (The Essential Rumi)

• Chief Dan George: “We are part of a circle of life that stretches beyond our sight.” (My Heart Soars)

• The Dhammapada 152: “The wise understand that death is not the end but the doorway to another path.”

• Romans 6:4: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (NIV) 
  

AWE
Aware.  Which quote speaks to you? 
Wonder.  Contemplate what this means to you. 
Enjoy/Engage/Experience.  What is your next step?