The other night while on vacation with my family, I was sitting there with my daughter on the couch in a cozy wooden cabin by a river in the mountains of northern Georgia watching the original Disney’s The Lion King. I hadn’t seen The Lion King in quite a long time and definitely not under the premises of giving it my complete undivided attention. I love these moments when I’m watching or listening to something that I have watched or listened to a million times and I see or hear something new that I’ve never seen or heard before. You know a work of art is special and worthy of reflection when, like an ancient age old teacher, it continually yields wisdom as you revisit it again and again throughout the different seasons of life. Such was the case as I watched one of my favorite childhood stories with my daughter.
We were at the part when Simba has come into his power and fullness of stature and in the process of reuniting with Nala and rekindling their love for each other, he stirs up some flower petals and hair of his own perhaps and dirt from the jungle floor which then catches the wind and some pieces of what he stirred up finds its way to Rafiki sitting presently in his tree. Rafiki catches some of the debris flying on the wind and then takes a long deep inhaling smell. Something obviously catches his attention in the scent of the debris so he proceeds to throw the debris into a bowl to explore the message within, relying on his powers of shamanic wisdom and ritual to reveal what is. It is then, while staring into the bowl, his entire face lights up realizing it is the sign of the life of Simba and that Simba is very much alive. Rafiki is overwhelmed with joy and authentic righteous laughter as he restores the memory of Simba upon his wall adding a mane to the impression of the cub. Then, grabbing his walking stick, and with a vigorous light in his eyes coupled with the wise and unyielding powerful belief in the fulfillment of the circle of life, he says with purposeful affirmation, “IT IS TIME!”
Now leading up to this moment in the story, Scar had run the Pride Lands into the ground literally. The land was barren and dead. There was no water, no green, and no wildlife or food for the lions and hyenas. The once beautiful and harmonious Pride Lands full of life and promise had become a wasteland devoid of hope and offering only the promise of death. The scene of Rafiki learning of Simba being alive was contrasted effectively with the scene of the Pride Lands being a wasteland. Perhaps this specifically timed contrast was a metaphor for the balance of life and death that is always present even when it appears that it is not.
Have you ever been in a metaphorical or literal “wasteland” of sorts? Have you found yourself stuck in a mental state of “darkness” and completely devoid of hope for your future or any future at all? Has your reality and the path of your life appeared to be just like the barren Pride Lands that was under Scar’s rule? Has the season of life you are in seemed so bleak and lifeless that you felt like lying down for the indefinite dirt nap!?!
I have definitely been in those dark and empty seasons of life before on the journey. Sometimes the dark times last only a short time, other times they can last years. When I say years, I mean YEARS!!! When you find yourself in a “wasteland” lasting years, it gets very hard to see an end in sight and you can begin to adopt a terrible mindset as the only mindset which will only further your time in the “wasteland”. But having gone through a few of those times in the dark “wasteland” of life, I know now what Rafiki knew so confidently and affirmatively; those “dark times” end………..always! There is a “TIME” when the land is replenished and the balance of life is brought back into its rightful place of power. There is always redemption just like the first blades of green grass that emerge from the soil shortly after a great fire that has laid waste to a forest. Without death, there is no life.
So as I was sitting there with my daughter and Rafiki said, “IT IS TIME!”, I understood his meaning in such a deeply profound way that I never could before as a child or even a young man. There can be peace and stillness in the dark times because, like Rafiki, I know from experiencing it many times now, there will be a TIME when the darkness or “wasteland” of a season ends and life returns to your journey with renewed energy, wisdom, resilience to discomfort and hardship, and a greater strength of mind, body, and soul. If you view your identities, beliefs, and behavioral patterns as the Pride Lands of your soul, then there will be times when Scar will rule your Pride Lands and destroy the life therein as those former identities, limiting beliefs, and old behavioral patterns that do not serve you anymore will need to die so new life can rise up and flourish again. Once you have experienced this cycle of life and death within on your sacred hero’s journey, then you will begin to patiently hold the fullness and power of belief in hope even when things appear to be at their worst or in life’s darkest hours. And it is there in that patient and peaceful space of hope because of the true knowledge of redemption that you will know when, IT IS TIME!!
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