The Power of Endings

Photo by Carlos Hernandez on Unsplash

I write a lot about becoming and how endings are also beginnings. But lately, endings, just endings all by themselves, have been on my mind. I don’t think I’ve always allowed myself time to process the endings. Without that space and time, the beginnings inherent in endings can be stunted.

Even in spring the trees shed leaves. New growth replaces old, but the old has to fall away first. And that falling away holds meaning. What has fallen meant something and now it is no longer. Except we remember it. What is remembered lives, as one tradition I follow says, but “it” is no longer present in the same way, and that leaves us disoriented, expecting what can no longer be.

We experience endings all the time, but only some really strike through to the heart of our being.

Yesterday I watched an interview with Melissa Gilbert on Super Soul Sunday. Her best friend’s life was ending and it brought her to that edge of clarity. The end made realization dawn in her heart. She dropped everything to be with the woman who was the love of her life. She left her husband and her life as she knew it. An impending end summoned love out of the depths.

Why do we think we have forever? In a distant metaphysical kind of way we do, but this experience, in this form is finite and that’s the greatest gift. It’s truly the greatest gift.

Love, when it’s new, is a kind of free fall. And losing someone we love is as well. I watch the leaves drift from the tree outside my window. It flutters and then rocks as it catches a breeze. That’s love holding us as we fall. The departed and those left behind, both in free fall.

Those of us left sometimes feel as though we’re speeding towards the ground until we realize there never was one. We just go on falling. And that’s okay. We’ve been released. Susan Piver, a meditation teacher, says when the heart breaks, it breaks open. It’s love unbound. It’s both painful and so unbelievably beautiful.

The sun is setting in the west now. As it goes down, we are able to witness its brilliance in a way we can’t when it’s high in the sky. The end of the day does carry the promise of tomorrow. But this day, this unique day is done. We won’t have it again. Take in the brilliant sunset. Take in the words of love shared this day. Take in the touch of a loved one, the warmth of your pet on your lap, the hug of your child. Take it all in. And let the day end in peace.