I live in a hilly college town in Upstate NY. Whenever I take the back way to downtown, I can see off in the distance hills and buildings and lovely scenery. For some reason, I noticed a particular scene and saw it in a new light. I was struck by the symbolism of what was in my view.
Atop the crest of the hill are dormitories. Dormitories are where young adults arrive to learn and grow and become someone new and different.
The hill in the distance slopes downward from the crest, and the entire sloping hillside is a cemetery. I could see a broad swath of headstones just below the dormitories. It struck me as an interesting metaphor.
A new stage of life begins in the dormitories. Lives that are finished rest on the hillside.( I tend to believe there is also something new and exciting that follows--in the realm of spirit.)
In a different way, it reminded me of what I felt when I was recently "deadheading" last year's old dead remains from a flowering shrub. I figured that since they were all done I could easily remove them, which I did. Until I removed the dead flowers, I had not been aware of all the buds bursting out of the stems, anxiously waiting to become this year's blooms!
The message and indeed the lesson for me in this is that in order to experience the new and lovely one has to let go of what is old and worn and no longer offering anything of beauty or use.
This would also apply to businesses, governments, churches, schools, organizations, systems, computers and the like.
For such is the nature of life on Earth.
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