The Future is Cyclical

A new direction that isn’t new at all

Continuing this month’s theme of tender buds, possibility and vulnerability, I’m paving the way for a somewhat new direction here on Peace of the Whole. I’d love for you to join me. 🌀

Andreas Cellarius’ Harmonia Macrocosmica, “Phases of the Moon”

This has been on my mind for a bit and I want to know what you think.

Alright. So, is it just me or do things not seem to be going well?

Like, do you read the news and come away thinking: Well, isn’t that nice? So much good news! Would ya look at all that peace and flourishing that’s happening!

You don’t? Yeah, me neither.

Do you think about your own life, or talk to people and find yourself thinking: That’s so lovely everyone is doing well! Everyone is healthy, thriving, nourished! They aren’t continuously ill, or stressed, or living with a disregulated nervous system. Everyone feels respected and supported!

No? Ok, I don’t think that either.

Or do you think about the future and muse: A hundred years from now, it’s gonna be great. Everything’s gonna be great. We are treating the only home we have very well indeed!

Yep…I don’t find myself that hopeful either.

And do you look at the systems that guide the path of the world and society and think: How equitable! How just! So much respect! So much dignity!

Ok, I think you get the idea.

I’m making jokes because that’s what we do now, isn’t it? We joke about how badly it’s going—how it’s going for us, for the planet, for the ones we love, for the people we have never met. We joke in tweets, in TikToks, in those “this is fine” memes. We say we’re so tired, we’re so burnt out, the planet is burning, the turtles are dying and, sometimes—maybe too often—we shrug.

And I get why. We shrug because we can’t individually solve all the problems. It’s hard to even live with the problems within our selves—be they mental, emotional or physical—because of the complexities of modern life and the legacies of colonialism, racism, trauma, injustice, environmental damage, lack of healthcare, and more.

The Way Things Are Going, here in the modern era, really used to bog me down. It still does, but less so. It used to bog me down to the point of inaction and clinical depression. I would walk down the street and feel like it was all pointless. At the time that I was becoming aware of the severity of our climate crisis, there was also deep political division being sown in the country where I live and my body was falling apart due to stress, Lyme disease, microbiome dysbiosis and an eating disorder. It seemed to be coming from all angles.

I’ve long found myself wanting to take a different route, at a different pace, for a different purpose than I see a lot of society running. And also I’ve had to go about life differently because of chronic health problems. I’ve had to look my limits in the face and find a way to believe health is possible when it seems distinctly impossible.

So as I waded out of depression, I could see a reason to try to live differently and advocate for a different way. The why was clear. But the what was harder.

What would it look like to move through life differently? What would it look like for society to be differently oriented?

What guides did I have that were solid and true and not a trend or another singular, flawed human telling me what to do? How else could I pattern my life?

Slowly, I’ve arrived at what I think might be an answer: cycles. Cycles are our guides.

I think the future is going to have to be cyclical.

We’re all cyclical beings in a world made of and by cycles within cycles.

The seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall.

The moon cycles: new, waxing, full, waning.

The day: morning, noon, afternoon, night.

An agricultural year: planting, growing, harvesting, fallow

The creative process: preparation, incubation, illumination, verification

And within our own bodies—the menstrual cycle. Follicular, ovulatory, luteal, menstruation. Regardless of whether you have one, you are here because someone did.

There’s no fully excusing ourselves from these cycles. And yet what are we surrounded by? What guides the trajectory and pace of our lives now?

A belief in an endless summer. A belief that we have endless abundance just when we want it, how we want it, for as long as we want it. An obsession with exponential growth at any cost. Consumption and conquest without remorse. Manufactured scarcity. A lack of reciprocity or empathy. The attention economy. A belief that the more-than-human world is an unintelligent resource to be exploited.

And how’s that going for us?

To me, it doesn’t seem like we’re flourishing. Like we’re living within our limits consciously. Like we’re working towards the health of the ecosystems we’re bound to.

The planet is paying for it. Our bodies are paying for it. Paying dearly.

A short list of things that aren’t cyclical:

Fresh strawberries in the grocery store in December

Endless news or social media feeds

Working 9-5, 5 days a week (at best), all year long

The plethora of blue light around us

Masking, medicating and ignoring the menstrual cycle

Living most of our lives indoors

Living in our brains and ignoring our bodies.

Amazon (not the river)

AI generated “art”

Capitalism

We also just aren’t wired for this. We weren’t made within a time of endless summer. Humans developed over the course of hundreds of thousands of years within the natural cycles of the world and our bodies. We lived—and evolved—within the circadian cycle of night and day. There was no way of opting out, or prolonging either time. We lived within the cycle of seasons, however that looked in whatever part of the world we were in. Our work, living, and sleeping habits shifting through the year. And I believe there consequently must have been more awareness (albeit maybe not respect) for the cyclical nature of the bodies of women and process of menstruation.

This is what formed us. And then very suddenly we changed everything.

Since the rise of capitalism, partly, and more definitely since the turn of the twentieth century, we’ve steadily been gaining ways to fool ourselves into thinking we are excused from the rhythmic patterns of the more-than-human world. We’ve also made some synthetic “cycles” of our own. And I think we’re paying the price for all that.

So living cyclically—purposefully engaging with the cycles—must be a way to engage with the true make-up of our bodies, brains, nervous systems and place in the world.

Cycles are always present. You are never not within a cycle. One of them can be a constant guide you can access.

Now, I do realize there isn’t any going back now. I’m not suggesting that to live cyclically we have to ditch electricity in our homes or only eat what’s in season. I think we need to find a way to live cyclically in this period of human history, learning from the past and looking to the future.

We are where we are now. What happened, happened. We can choose how we go forward.

To be clear, I don’t think living cyclically is arranging pretty flowers or produce from the local farmers market. I love those things too. But they aren’t the whole of it. It must run deeper because before we shifted away from cyclical living as a culture cycles ruled our lives. They were everything. And as the climate crisis continues, cyclical or seasonal living can’t just be an aesthetic. We’re going to need the awareness, adaption and knowledge that comes with practicing cyclical living.

As far as I can tell, I think some of the essential work of living cyclically is to divest from the systems of power that pushed living this way out in the first place and, eventually, toppling those systems for a return to seasonal, restorative, embodied, respectful, and reciprocal nature-based living.

Which, is a lot. And it’s not going to happen quickly. On a good day, we’re going to be swimming upstream.

Elevating marginalized voices is critical in this work, as is the menstrual cycle. For me, the menstrual cycle is the most poignant manifestation of cyclical living because it’s how every human arrives here. And I believe part of the shift away from cyclical living was connected with the oppression of women and people who experience menstruation. Menstruating bodies are marginalized bodies. It’s time to elevate the cycle that our flourishing comes from and listen to the wisdom inherent in it.

Now, I don’t think this will solve everything. I don’t know if this will solve anything actually. I don’t come to you with a fully-formed plan. But I know that these guides are present and woven into our DNA. So it seems incredibly ridiculous to ignore all that.

There’s nothing to be lost from living cyclically. There’s a great deal to be gained.

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I don’t want to be exploring this alone though. In fact, I have been and I’m tired of it. It’s lonely and antithetical to the point!

Does living cyclically matter to you? If so, please join me then here on Peace of the Whole. I think it’s going to take a lot of encouragement and support to live cyclically, and I’m here for that.

In the coming weeks there will be more discussion prompts opening up so that we can explore this together.

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I’m curious…

🌀What do you think cyclical living looks like? There’s no wrong answer! We’re all exploring here, including me. I’m sitting figuring this out.

🌀Is this concept new to you or are you already working to live in line with the cycles?

🌀What do you think living cyclically could contribute to your life? To the world?

I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these questions or anything this essay brought up for you.

I’m also in the process of shifting the structure of these newsletters.

Comments will be accessible for everyone on this post. Next month, comments will be accessible for free subscribers on the first post of the month only. All of other posts will have comments open for paid subscribers only. Discussions will also be for paid subscribers only.

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🌀 Do you have a friend who is cyclically minded or cyclically curious? Maybe send this over to them so they can join the conversation too? The more the merrier!