Every end has a beginning on both sides. It is those transition periods that can be the most challenging. A whole lot of our endings overwhelm the beginning that happens – or COULD happen at the same time. Sometimes we wrestle for weeks, months, or even years before we can let go of the end and fully embrace the new beginning … that isn’t so much of a beginning anymore. It can be even more challenging to look back and see what resources we gained from the previous beginning (and middle) that just ended.
What is especially important is to recognize the things that haven’t actually ended, but came through from a previous beginning to this one. Don’t throw every beginning out with the ending, as they say. Well, actually, they don’t say that, but they should.
Why am I nattering on about beginnings and endings?
Mostly because I just experienced one. An ending, I mean. A big one for me. One of them that made my heart feel like it had been trampled, and by my own feet, no less. I am smack in the middle of that challenging, messy, prone to navel gazing transition into a new beginning.
I want to tell you the story.
I warn you that it is a bird story. But I don’t think you have to be a bird person to benefit from it, or even enjoy it. At the core, it is a human story. It’s about how we wrestle with unpacking our design and all of the wonders, surprises and disappointments that go along with it. It’s about weighing the realities of the present against the uncertainties of the future and making decisions with outcomes we can’t predict. It’s about things that don’t turn out the way we dreamed. I hope that you will be encouraged and challenged. I hope that it will make you think and ask questions you haven’t asked before. I hope it will give you permission to risk. And if I have done my job well, you will laugh (or at least grin and roll your eyes occasionally) and maybe even cry.
To tell you the story, I have to start at the beginning. The other beginning. Not the one I am at now. The one on the other side of the end. You know, where it all began.
To be continued (for quite a while, based on the number of sticky notes on my wall) …
rimoftheworld7.com 
Well….. it’s clear you are a Mercy and not a Teacher, because then you would have needed to start the sorry…. at the beginning….. before the foundation of the world!
As one who really, REALLY likes stories that start at the beginning, I’m looking forward to enjoying you, enjoy your joy, in the telling!
Megan, I have been chewing on this notion of endings also. The thought that essence serves as a closing bracket “[” to the opening bracket of design “]”. I feel like somehow Mercy’s deal with this dynamic you are describing, perhaps because we are the last of the gifts? There is an upside-down-ness to the gift that corresponds to the day when God rested from all his labors.
Side note – a beginning – yesterday we just bought a parakeet, “Perry the Parakeet”, to pair with my wife’s other, lonely parakeet, Snowflake. They are staring at one another in awkward silence for the last 24 hours. Hopefully this improves…
Ok, I am intrigued by your comment about essence serving as a closing bracket to the opening bracket of design. Care to expound? You have my attention. :D) If you are interested, perhaps you could send an e-mail and we could dialog there. I had to smile at your comment about the 24 hours of awkward silence … *cue cricket*. Do you happen to know the sex of the two? I don’t know about parakeets, but most of the time, having two males as the only two inhabitants doesn’t go over real well.
I see that I reversed the bracket order in my previous comment. Well, that proves your point, I suppose! :’D
You had me at “bird.” Although I married (and have buried) a Wagner who did not travel, I was born as Peacock and my house is dominated by birds–peacocks, Aussie birds, an eagle, lots of Canada geese, a duck, a trumpeter swan, a chickadee and a crane and a gull.
Dreams have not been prominent on my journey but gestalts, structures are key.
Sounds like you have developed and varied tastes in birds! :D)
I find it interesting to read your post because I am very focused on beginnings and endings at the moment. Specifically ending well, recognizing God’s hand at work, and seeing what is to be let go of because it was a previous season, hold onto for the new season, and recognize as a new treasure in the new season. We know it is a transition season of which the Lord will unwrap the new season.
“What is especially important is to recognize the things that haven’t actually ended, but came through from a previous beginning to this one.”
Yeeeesssss……. This sentence seems the centerpiece, and rings throughout my being. It’s sounded, crisp and clear.
It’s a centerpiece.
A firm, strong, anchoring one.
But more. It’s timeless truth, and it makes my inner essence “cry” with both joy and longing, and a great, big, radiant smile.
We’ve touched.
I can feel your story already.
I can wait, but I can hardly wait……
Yes, I think there is a WHOLE lot of life learning in that capacity to carry things forward. Something we are continually learning, I think!
Yes! This is exactly what I am sensing going on in my life. Looking forward to reading the rest of your story.