foggy harbor Creative Commons license courtesy Kelly Sikkema

“This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.”

t.s. eliot

Watch a Hollywood action movie, and you’ll have the impression that all endings are dramatic endings.

Life just isn’t that way.

The things in our life just aren’t that way.

People come and go. Jobs come and go. The things we own come and go.

Because nothing really lasts forever, all the more reason to stay away, alert, and alive. Being able to fully notice and enjoy everything means that we can continue to enjoy them into the future. Any memories won’t be based on events that we only imagined. Instead, living fully, our lives are already complete. So, what might be called an “ending” is really the continuation of experiences.

It also means that we can create new beginnings with the ones we love, and those new beginnings may not be marked by a dramatic event. Instead, the changes may flow from one to the next.