Tag Archives: endings

Accepting New Beginnings

moving-on-doesnt-mean-you-forget-about-thingsThere is nothing as exciting as a new beginning.  Reading yesterday, I came across this theme that is often a problem for me and many others. Endings are hard.  All things in the history of the world have had a beginning, a middle, and an end. That is the way of all things.  Often, when the end is harsh, a lingering regret remains, which does not allow a person to let go and move forward. The item you can be sure of is that right now, whatever is happening in your life is changing in some way and moving closer to its inevitable end.  We should be grateful in many ways because, without endings, there would be no new beginnings.

Painful Endings

I have experienced some endings in the job world that have been very difficult and painful. Some have looked to the past with longing and wished I could go ending 3back to the security of that situation or the parts of the job that I enjoyed.  However, looking into the past only brought sadness and regret.  Like many endings, there is no way to move onto something else that perhaps will provide you with greater enjoyment and fulfillment current situation is ended.   Every new beginning comes from an ending of something.

Accepting this can be difficult if it involves a relationship or even death because the emotions around these events will never seem optimistic in any way.  Yet if you analyze the situation, there is a simple choice for you to accept what has happened and move on with your life or to refuse to accept it and live in a past of regret and unhappiness. The choice is always yours.

Tough Relationships

When it comes to relationships, imperfect endings can moving on 2provide you with the learning experiences needed to propel you toward the person who can fulfill your needs.  It is a matter of perspective. That relationship ended because it lacked in some way. There was something that wasn’t fulfilling or favorable for you.

If you knew that within a day,  the person who would fulfill every one of your needs was going to enter your life, would you be all that sad?

In effect, you are holding on to an unfulfilled past at the expense of a complete future.  We often lack the perspective we are in life right now, feeling pain and just trying to survive.  If we could rise above life and look down and observe our paths and the next steps in front of us, we would be much more accepting of the change.  All things in life are generally working toward your greatest good, and fear makes us address things any other way.

Hard Times

We are afraid of the hard times in life because they are not fun to go through, and they hurt and are painful. Yet without these moments of challenge, many people would lack the depth and character that will make them the people they are destined to be.  Perhaps a  perspective needed to be adjusted, or a belief required to be changed to reach their full potential.

Not everything in life will work out how you want it to, but it will give you something that you needed to know to reach your full potential.  It is a fact that no matter what situation you are currently in, it beginnings 4will pass one day and cease to exist. It may be in a day or many years, but even the hardest of times will end and fade into memory. They will leave scars, but those scars will help build the character that will allow you to be the best person you can be if you adhere to their lessons.

Endings can be painful, but there is an excitement of a new beginning that will provide each person with a glimmer of hope in their heart that a dream may come true because of this endeavor. A person will never know unless they dare to accept the ending and the strength to take the step into the future.

Autumn’s Song

Fall really has it all, bright colors over a melancholy heart.
Fall really has it all, bright colors over a melancholy heart.

There are few things that make me feel as great inside and out as the autumn of the year. Living in a legitimate four seasons area, a person is fortunate to see all of the positives and negatives that each time of year provides.  Each has a list of positives and negatives but the one that makes me happiest is fall.

The nostalgia that naturally appears this time of year is so strong and vibrant that you not only think of those times in the past but you can feel them. The weather is cool, but not cold. It is the perfect weather for being outdoors and being outdoors connects you to activities in the past.  Just closing your eyes and feeling the breeze on your face and smelling the air connects you to those times in your past when the

What more do you need?
What more do you need?

same unique and powerful sensation washed over you. It could have been at a football game, a hunting trip, or even a  through an autumnal sea of pumpkins. Whatever activity of fall entertained you in your past, it is back in your mind each and every time the autumnal equinox passes and the days get shorter.

For me there is a unique melancholy in the air that is universally enjoyed by all during this time of year. Each emotion needs to have a season and fall is the season of feeling a bit sad.  I don’t think it is so much a season of endings, but more a season of letting go and moving forward.

Help yourself to a pumpkin. It's fall!
Help yourself to a pumpkin. It’s fall!

The autumn air tempers the pain of some endings and allows for a person to deal with them in unison with the season. No matter how painful something was and the hurt that you feel, fall reminds us all that endings of all kinds are the way of things in life. Each glorious summer will end and all of its possibilities and joyous memories no longer exist in the cool, crisp fall air. They are gone and need to be put away as happy memories.

Yet there is a hope that fall brings in its melancholy. There is an understanding that although one season has ended and another year is approaching and in its ending we are allowed to close the book on it.  Good, bad, indifferent, we are allowed to leave that year behind us and to move forward to new adventures where anything is possible, and another summer of fun awaits us, if we just have a little patience.

Autumn is the natural time of reflection that nature brings to us and allows a time of appreciation and enjoyment. Without endings, there are no new beginnings and fall allows you to remember the past, and the pleasurable experiences of your younger days and allows the ability to carry them into the future and to share these moments with the ones you care about.

As the leaves change color,  contribute a bright message to the world and ultimately fall to their inevitable end, so will autumn and with it a small piece of you knows exactly what that feels like.

Grateful for Change

leaves change and so do we
A picture I took at a random location of the fall foliage.

 The lessons that nature teaches us are on display all around us each and every day.  All we have to do is listen and being fortunate enough to live in an area the has a distinct four seasons, I am lucky to experience these changes and I am grateful for it.

For many years I am ashamed to say that I never really enjoyed or contemplated too much about it, but lately, I can’t help but be amazed and think about all that the changes of the season bring to the world.  Right now it is autumn in Maine and that means that each and every day you will see a wide array of colors, red, yellow, orange and even brown.  This change where once there was only green makes you think and often about gratitude.

On the Surface

Seeing the leaves change is a pretty miraculous thing. To think that nature knows exactly how to work itself for the trees to survive is amazing, and further than that there is the show they put on.  I have been fortunate enough to see, bright-colored leaves reflecting on the still waters of a fall lake surface.  It brings many thoughts to my mind as I look at the colors and understand them for what they are. Harbingers of what is to come and we merely need to listen to hear their warnings and to learn from them.

Change Is Constant

One of the best reminders of fall is that change is happening all around us all the time.

fall is a season which depicts change
Leaves are falling all around, it’s time I was on my way.

You may not be able to see it visually, but everything is changing all the time.  These variations are usually never as visual as the leaves but they are as real.  Each relationship, job, and personal journey is changing all the time.

No matter what you do and no matter what you think of your current circumstances, it matters little because soon they will be different because things are always changing.   Just like the fall will eventually give up its life to the oncoming winter, so must we learn to let go of our attachments to this life.

It is the values of these changes that make them appear good or bad.  Yet aren’t they simply just experiences?  The fall season helps me to contemplate and understand the changes that are happening in life all the time.  I have a gratefulness inside for all of the changes that have happened in my life and that growth is not possible without change.

Endings Are Just Endings

Another great thought of fall is the twilight of the year, the ending of summer and how this season represents an ending in our lives.  The phrase “The Autumn of our Lives”, captures this effectively.

I have a problem with this phrase because we simply do not know with any kind of certainty when this life is going to end.   it may be over in five minutes or it may last another 30-40 years.  Nobody knows.

When you look at the fall it will have an ending, just as all of our lives will, but there is a hidden promise in the fall.  It is there in every nostalgic feeling and thought, that eventually, the spring and beautiful summer will come again.  We just need to be patient.  All things will eventually end, that is the way that the universe works.  All things have a beginning, a middle and an ending.

This is not a bad thing, it is only a thing.   So it teaches you to enjoy the summer, or the fall or the winter or whatever season you are experiencing right now because that is all you have right now.  There may never be another summer to look forward to, so not completely enjoying today is a foolhardy choice.

The fall makes me grateful for each and every day and what it has to offer.