I feel like I should be in The Lion King...

Life seems to have a definite rhythm. It is cyclical; it is repetitive. Events, both large and small, are experienced again and again, but each time with renewed circumstances and perspective.

Sunday afternoon we attended a baby shower for Husband's cousin and his girlfriend who will welcome a little girl in three months. Last night we attended a wake for my grandmother's sister's husband, affectionately known as "Uncle Jack," a man who was rarely seen without a beaming smile.

Perhaps surprisingly, both events were joyous celebrations of life. I always enter funeral parlors expecting shadows and hushed voices, but am instead greeted over and over with boisterous conversations and laughter and joy, remembering the life being commemorated, not the death.

The circle of life continues. Enter singing cartoon animals.