We lose parts of ourselves while traveling through this life. It’s probably one of the saddest realities that we must accept and certainly one for which we mourn the rest of our lives. These lost parts haunt us as a ghost who wishes to close the separation between us and what we’ve lost. But there is no unification, only the acceptance that our loss has forced us to become someone different and new.
Losing parts of ourselves, in essence, is the slow death of who we once were. Each new day we shed a bit of who we were to make room for who we are becoming. Our new experiences fill that void offering a new opportunity to be reborn and live with new perspectives. Each day new victories, losses and life experiences fill those voids and we slowly begin to live as a new people. It is because we are in a constant state of decay and regeneration that we are able to realize that growing and changing are the true miracles of life.
What we lose is never a complete end as remnants remain in our soul. Still, its overall absence pushes us into a new beginning of comprehension. In order for us to ever live life as it was intended and understand our purpose within creation, we must experience loss. It moves us into new directions of opportunity that enlighten us and affords us a new beginning which proves we are greater than all the losses taken from us combined.
This is true on a biological level. Your entire skeleton is replaced about 10 years. Red blood cells only last about 4 months and white ones around 1 year. Other cells in our bodies seem to last between 11 and 15 years. Interesting to think about what that means. I’d ask if you replace every part of a car down to the nuts and bolts: is it the same car?
I brought this subject up to someone just last week! I was saying that, to me, during the course of our lives many ‘cycles’ come and go without us even realizing it. We are constantly changing and it has an effect on many aspects of our life…… where and how we live, work, our behavior and even the people we interact with.
Great commentary CH. Keep up the good work old friend.