so the year passes into many yesterdays...

I was reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for my british lit class today and came across this little descriptive passage. Notice the alliteration line by line, those poets had some talent:

"But then the weather of the world chides with winter;
the cold withdraws itself, the clouds uplift,
and the rain falls in warm showers on the fair plains.
Then the flowers come forth,
meadows and grove are clad in green,
the birds make ready to build,
and sing sweetly for solace of the soft summer
that follows thereafter.

The blossoms bud and blow
in the hedgerows rich and rank,
and noble notes enough
are heard in the fair woods.

After the season of summer, with the soft winds,
when zephyr breathes lightly on seeds and herbs,
joyous indeed is the growth that waxes thereout
when the dew drips from the leaves
beneath the blissful glance of the bright sun.
But then comes harvest and hardens the grain,
warning it to wax ripe ere the winter.
The drought drives the dust on high,
flying over the face of the land;
the angry wind of the welkin wrestles with the sun;
the leaves fall from the trees and light upon the ground,
and all brown are the groves that but now were green,
and ripe is the fruit that once was flower.
So the year passes into many yesterdays,
and winter comes again, as it needs no sage to tell us."

I love the description in this passage, talking about the movement between seasons. It really emphasizes the beauty and liveliness of spring, the growth of summer, autumn's harvest, and both literal and figurative death experienced in winter. The author talks about how "the year passes into many yesterdays, / and winter comes again, as it needs no sage to tell us." It is so true. Years in our lifetime seem to mix seamlessly together. We can't distinguish one from the other because time, in our sense of the word, is a human invention.
Before human beings were around, the world moved on as it always had. The birds kept no records of history, the squirrels didn't have their own timeline, and the fish couldn't tell each other the exact date the new coral reef came into being, because that is not how nature worked. It is a cycle of life and death, continually moving forward. When those on the earth now die off, the world doesn't cease to exist. It goes on like it always has.
That is why this passage touched me so much. The author captured the beauty of nature, of its life-cycle, and came to grips with the fact that even though humanity is not eternal, there are natural things (and many things super-natural) that ARE eternal, the seasons being one of many.
The beauty of nature is great, but it is no accident. Time didn't just come into being, it has a purpose. Human beings are not merely on Earth to live and die, we have a meaningful life. All of these facts can be debated, but I have no doubt in my mind that there is something (or someone) greater out there to live for, and the beauty of nature just makes that idea seem so much more true.