In the spirit of a New Year

I've been thinking a lot about the idea of beginning a new year, which of course, is wrapped up in the idea of the life/death/resurrection cycle (which is why I posted a picture of the Firebird from the Firebird Suite from Fantasia 2000—I decided that that was close enough to a phoenix). I'm not extremely familiar with the mythology—
but I have:

• read Harry Potter
• played Final Fantasy (summons, ahoy!)
• and skimmed the Wikipedia page

 good enough, right?


Anyways, the phoenix is a mystical bird that lives a very long time. When the phoenix reaches the end of its lifespan, it erupts into flames and from the ashes is born a baby phoenix, and the cycle is begun anew. This life/death/resurrection cycle is present in so many different ways in our culture. And I'm talking about more than the obvious Christian resurrection. Nature is cyclical. Day/night. Summer/winter. Planting certain plants requires a burial of the original plant, which gives way to a new plant being born.

Lately I've been trying to understand where death fits into my own life. Not in a morbid way, but I think I've finally come to terms with night-time and it'd be nice to come to terms with death. Granted: I'm still in the process of coming to terms with life, and I'm nowhere near coming to terms with winter :)

Anyways, these are just a few of the abstract thoughts I've been having. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more reflective. I have yet to compile my list of resolutions, but that's one of them. And I plan to use my blog as an outlet for that reflection. Feel free to share any thoughts that you might have in the comments section. Anyways, Happy New Year's Day, everyone!


*Addition*
I think this video pretty well sums up a death of flames and rebirth from ashes...