Each end is a beginning to something else. There is no such thing as 'done'. Even the most radical and irreversible of ends leaves a memory behind, a ruin, a feel, images, love received and given.
Experiences build us us, they inhabit us, they inform our next move, they bind us to those who were there.
People, places and things disappear in their known form, but what they are made of dissolves and inhabits new life, at the very least as substance - the atoms that formed the matter - and too, as energy that is now dispersed and fuels something somewhere in the cycle of life.
Each boundary we push, mountain top we climb, finish line we cross, milestone we celebrate are view points pointing to the next endeavour.
Embracing our unique gifts leads through an adventure that changes us.
This new version of ourselves, that other side of the mirror, we still have to discover, even and particularly if it pokes at what we think we know.
As everything changes, we can experience infinite renewal.
What is done is done. We can learn from it and move forward, to make new mistakes.
Reliving the past, basking in its glory or wallowing in its pain, pondering whether we did the right thing, or rewriting the script to soothe our ego, are failures to own our story.
We made mistakes and we were afraid, we got a few things right, most took several tries, we missed points and boats, but we got here, where something is done and the next bit starts.
As long as we are looking back, we aren’t walking our path.
The idea we can give it a big push and then rest satisfied is a fantasy.
Everything, every task, endeavour, adventure, goal, undertaking, journey will take more out of us than we can muster at once.
Courageous action is not as much about the grand gesture and the spectacular advances as it is about consolidating momentum and knowing the foot forward is about to carry the load while other foot lifts.
Preparation, mastery, vision and intentions are commendable and certainly necessary, but they are dreams until we put them to practice.
Choosing life is an engagement, a confrontation, an application, a test, an endeavour. Accomplishment lies in stepping up to the plate and delivering. And a bad delivery is better than a perfect vision.
Once we start, it never ends. The only end to our dream is if we never begin.
As one door closes another one opens. Behind it, new questions, new problems, new joys, all hidden or undefined, maybe in the making. That new door does not seem like an achievement, or a reward, it's the means to an end. It doesn't have much to do with the previous door closing, the only link is the continuity of the path, choosing to get through and to tackle the next adventure, to have the new journey be the reward.
Nothing fails us more than giving up. When we stop, when we let doubt cripple us and renounce our light, our dream, our purpose, we make an end.
The nature of life is to not end. Life finds a way to renew, reproduce, be reborn. Maybe in different shapes and in other ways, but it doesn’t stop.
Being alive means trying again, following our light, our heart, our hope, and taking what comes for what it is, learning and trying again.
We’ve come all this way, and now it’s done, the wheels are in motion, and there isn’t much left to do, to complete, change or reverse any of it.
Yet we are not done, completion requires us to remain present to the end, attend to the closure the same way we did any other chapter.
The flow of life declares the end, releases us into a new endeavour. It is not on us to sign out.
Not Yet Across
Before Completion