Endings…

All things end.

You get to the last page of a book. The closing credits roll in a movie. The sun sets as the clock ticks away another day. People and pets grow old and die. Even the Earth will some day most likely be swallowed up by the sun going nova.

All things end, and for some reason we see that as a bad thing most of the time.

What we fail to realize is that an ending is just a transition. Transitions are, in and of themselves, neither good nor bad. What makes them tip one way or the other is what we choose to do with them.

The Universe provides us with a near infinite number of elements to combine into our lives. It’s our job to put the pieces together. Granted, some of the edges of the puzzle are determined for us–parents, race, gender–but once we get to know ourselves a bit, there are a lot of different ways we can fit the pieces together.

I know people from all walks of life. I’ve seen people start out with nothing but a whole lot of pain and suffering and grow into gleaming examples of the best humanity has to office. I’ve also seen people of privilege fritter and waste not just their hours but all of their fortune and opportunity in an off hand way. I’ve also seen those of moderate standing, stand still and progress neither up nor down–or forward–in their lives.

Right now, we’re rolling quickly into the end of a year. Everyone out there is making resolutions. Little things that most will forget about or give up on by April or June, only to revisit them at this time next year and swear that the next set of resolutions will be different, that this year they’ll actually stick to them.

Every year, I skip the whole resolution thing. There’s really nothing more ending between 31 December and 1 January than there is between any two other arbitrary days. This planet travels in a circle around the sun, after all, and there is no beginning or end to speak of.

Except that which we arbitrarily have chosen.

Too many of us live our lives arbitrarily with no sense of purpose or drive or plan. Many more hit the other extreme and try to map out every second of their existence, planning as much as possible and focusing their drive to laser-like clarity.

When you get right down to it, both of those extreme paths are illusions.

Nothing we do is completely arbitrary. We all have biases and preferences that lead us in one direction or the other. Deep down, we all have some sort of drive or purpose. We just don’t always see it or feel it or hear it calling our name.

And nothing can be completely planned. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is selling you something and/or lying big time to themselves. The Universe is a wonderfully chaotic system, by human standards, that will always throw us a curve ball when we least expect it.

I say don’t worry about plans or purpose or beginnings or endings that much.

Instead, focus on what is. Better yet, create what is.

Choose the pieces you’re going to work with. Willingly and knowingly grab hold of them and fit them together. Live with awareness of the world around you and within you.

And don’t just do it now.

Do it all the time.

I don’t make resolutions. Instead, I simply re-affirm my basic view of life.

Things out there are rough. Don’t make them any rougher on yourself. Even more importantly, don’t make them any rougher on anyone else.

After all, whether you want them to be or not they’re a piece in your puzzle, too.

It’s only by working together that we’ll ever see the big picture… that we’ll ever, maybe, see an actual end.