Originally published April 27, 2025 • Refreshed September 5, 2026
“Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall.” — The Kybalion
Life has been life-ing over here.
And not the cute kind where you spill your coffee, forget a password, and laugh about it later.
I mean life-ing.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve experienced grief, major changes in my household, a move, financial challenges, career uncertainty, and now the adjustment of having a young person in my home again. Apparently, the Universe looked at my life and said, You know what she needs? More variables.
Ma’am.
Still, as I’ve moved through all of this, I keep coming back to something I wrote about before: the Universal Law of Rhythm.
The idea comes from the Hermetic teachings described in The Kybalion: everything moves in cycles. There is an ebb and flow, an advance and retreat, a rise and fall.
Picture a pendulum.
It swings one way, reaches its peak, slows, and eventually begins moving in the opposite direction.
Our lives do something similar.
There are seasons when money flows more easily, relationships feel steady, creativity is high, our bodies cooperate, and we feel like we finally have this adulting thing figured out.
Then the pendulum swings.
Suddenly you’re looking at your bank account like, Now who authorized THIS?
Life changes.
People transition.
Plans fall apart.
Responsibilities increase.
The ground underneath you feels different.
The lesson of the Universal Law of Rhythm isn’t that we should become indifferent to any of it. It’s learning that navigating life’s ups and downs becomes easier when we stop expecting life to remain in one position forever.
That includes the good positions too.
The Pendulum Is Going to Swing Sis
One of the things I appreciate about the Law of Rhythm is that it doesn’t promise perpetual happiness.
I know. Terrible marketing.
But it offers something more useful: perspective.
We live in a culture that treats every difficult season like something has gone terribly wrong. If we’re struggling financially, grieving, exhausted, uncertain, or simply not feeling like our usual selves, we immediately start asking:
What am I doing wrong?
Maybe nothing.
Sometimes you’re simply experiencing a different part of the cycle.
Nature understands this beautifully. Trees bloom, shed, become bare, and bloom again. The ocean comes toward the shore and retreats. The moon waxes and wanes.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
That’s rhythm.
And I understand that scripture differently these days.
My mother’s physical transition changed the rhythm of my life in ways I couldn’t fully anticipate. Grief was one part of it, but there were practical changes too. A household that once operated with two incomes became one. Responsibilities shifted. My sense of normal changed.
Then came moving.
Then financial pressures.
Then another change in the household.
None of those things individually defines my life. But together, they have required me to learn how to bend without believing I’m breaking.
That distinction matters.
When you’re navigating life’s ups and downs, you can acknowledge, This is hard, without turning that into, My life is bad.
Those are two very different statements.
One describes a season.
The other creates an identity.
And I refuse to build an identity around a temporary position of the pendulum.
The Sacred Stretch Isn’t Always Cute
In the original version of this post, I called difficult seasons the sacred stretch.
I still love that phrase.
But after living through a few more stretches, I would like to amend the record.
Sacred does not necessarily mean pleasant.
Sometimes the sacred stretch looks like prayer and journaling.
Sometimes it looks like sitting peacefully with your tea, trusting Divine Spirit.
And sometimes it looks like opening a bill and saying, Okay, Universe. Very funny.
Both can be spiritual experiences.
The sacred stretch is where we’re asked to practice what we’ve been talking about.
It’s easy to trust abundance when abundance is sitting on your couch eating snacks.
Scarcity asks different questions.
Do I still trust myself?
Can I make thoughtful decisions without panicking?
Can I ask for help without making it mean I’m incapable?
Can I adjust my plans without deciding I’ve failed?
Can I experience uncertainty without allowing uncertainty to become my entire personality?
That’s where self-worth enters the conversation.
Your circumstances can change without your value changing.
Your bank balance can fluctuate without your worth fluctuating with it.
Your productivity can dip without your purpose disappearing.
And grief can change you without erasing you.
Navigating life’s ups and downs requires remembering who you are while circumstances are busy rearranging themselves around you.
Stop Fighting the Swing and Learn From It
There’s another side of the Universal Law of Rhythm that we don’t talk about enough.
The upswing has responsibilities too.
When things are going well, enjoy them.
Please.
Don’t spend the whole beautiful season waiting for somebody to snatch it away.
Some of us finally get the peace we prayed for and immediately start conducting a threat assessment.
Everything is going suspiciously well. What is about to happen?
Cybersecurity brain, stand down. 😂
Peace does not require an incident-response plan.
At the same time, good seasons are opportunities to prepare.
The biblical story of Joseph in Genesis 41 is a beautiful example. Egypt was going to experience seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. Joseph didn’t spend the plentiful years pretending scarcity could never return. He stored grain.
That wasn’t fear.
That was wisdom.
And if there’s one lesson recent life has reinforced for me, it’s this: enjoy the harvest and put something in the barn.
Save some money when you can.
Rest before your body forces you to.
Nurture relationships before you desperately need support.
Create when creativity is flowing.
Handle maintenance before something starts making that expensive noise.
And spiritually, build practices that sustain you before you’re desperate for them.
Prayer, meditation, chanting, journaling, walking, therapy, silence, whatever keeps you grounded should not only become important when the pendulum swings.
We build roots during peaceful seasons so they can hold us during storms.
That is part of navigating life’s ups and downs with intention.
Giving It to God Doesn’t Mean Doing Nothing
We’ve all heard somebody say, “Give it to God.”
And depending on what I’m dealing with, sometimes I’m thinking, Gladly. Please take the whole folder.
But metaphysically, I don’t understand “giving it to God” as handing my problems over to some distant Being in the sky and waiting for Divine Spirit to clean everything up for me.
To me, it’s an act of releasing my need to control the outcome.
I can do what is mine to do without trying to do what belongs to God.
That’s a very different kind of surrender.
When I’m facing financial uncertainty, for example, giving it to God doesn’t mean ignoring the bills and waiting for money to materialize. I still have a responsibility to respond to what’s in front of me and make the next responsible decision available to me.
My work is the action. God’s work is the outcome.
Metaphysically Speaking
God isn’t separate from me. Divine Spirit works through us. So prayer for me isn’t necessarily asking an outside force to rescue me. Sometimes prayer is how I quiet my fear long enough to hear the wisdom, intuition, ideas, and direction already trying to come through.
That’s why Proverbs 3:5-6 resonates with me: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
I don’t interpret that as stop thinking.
Quite the opposite.
I hear: Stop believing your current understanding is the only possibility available.
That’s powerful when life swings low because fear loves to convince us that what we can see right now is all there is.
This isn’t working.
There’s not enough.
I don’t know how this is going to turn around.
Okay.
Maybe I don’t know.
That’s where I can give it to God.
I can say, I’ve done what I know to do today. Show me what’s mine to do next.
And then I release the rest.
Not because I don’t care.
Because carrying tomorrow’s uncertainty with today’s responsibilities isn’t helping anybody.
Take Practical Action
So, when life swings low, we adjust.
Not surrender our power. Not pretend everything is wonderful. Not slap a positive affirmation over something that genuinely hurts.
We respond to what is actually happening.
Sometimes faith looks like believing things will improve.
Sometimes faith looks like making the phone call.
Filling out the application.
Changing the budget.
Updating the résumé.
Accepting help.
Taking a nap.
Setting a boundary.
Or saying, This isn’t working anymore. I need another plan.
Spirituality without practical action can become avoidance.
I believe in Divine Spirit. I believe consciousness matters. I believe energy matters. And I also believe Xfinity would still like their money.
We can be spiritual and practical.
In fact, I think that’s where some of our deepest spiritual growth happens.
Do Your Inner Work
Take a moment and picture your life as a pendulum.
Where are you right now?
Are you in expansion, contraction, transition, rest, rebuilding, abundance, uncertainty, or somewhere between two seasons?
Don’t judge the answer. Observe it.
Then journal on this question:
What is this season asking me to learn, release, prepare for, or trust?
Next, divide a page into two columns.
On one side, write:
What I can control
On the other:
What I need to release
Be practical. Maybe you can control your spending, your boundaries, whether you ask for help, how you care for your body, or the next decision you make.
You cannot control every outcome, another person’s behavior, the past, or exactly when the pendulum will swing again.
That’s where surrender comes in.
Affirmation
I trust the rhythm of my life. My circumstances may change, but my worth remains steady. I use seasons of abundance wisely, move through difficult seasons faithfully, and trust that no position of the pendulum lasts forever.
Final Thoughts
I’m learning that navigating life’s ups and downs isn’t about becoming so spiritually evolved that nothing bothers you.
Please. I’m still human.
Some days I feel deeply grounded.
Other days I’m looking toward the heavens like, Can we wrap up this particular lesson? I believe I have demonstrated proficiency.
Growth doesn’t eliminate your humanity.
It gives you tools for moving through it.
The Universal Law of Rhythm reminds me not to make permanent conclusions from temporary circumstances.
This season is not my whole story.
Neither was the last one.
And neither will be the next.
The pendulum keeps moving.
So when you’re in an upswing, enjoy it. Be grateful. Build. Prepare. Laugh. Live.
And when you’re in that downswing, the sacred stretch, tend to yourself. Get practical. Ask for support. Protect your peace. Remember what you’ve survived before.
Psalm 30:5 tells us that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Morning is rhythm.
So is night.
And perhaps wisdom isn’t trying to stop either one from coming.
Maybe wisdom is learning how to live fully through both.
The stretch can still be sacred, even when it gets on your last nerve.
The tide will turn.
The pendulum will swing.
And so will you.
Key Takeaways
- Life moves in seasons. Don’t mistake one season for your entire story.
- Your circumstances can fluctuate without your self-worth fluctuating.
- Enjoy abundance, but prepare while things are flowing.
- A difficult season can require faith and practical action.
- Rest is part of rhythm, not evidence that you’re falling behind.
- Stop making permanent conclusions from temporary circumstances.
- Trust the swing. Nothing stays in the same position forever.
Share your thoughts…respectfully of course.