In the middle of an ending

The ending of a year can bring with it all kinds of urgencies: things you need to do, goals you haven't achieved yet, things you hoped would happen but haven't, things that haven't progressed as fast as you wanted them to, or things that took off and you feel like you're holding on to their coat-tails…

And then there are all those old cliches and adages that come to mind, like:

It's how you finish that counts.

All good things come to an end.

It doesn't matter how you started, as long as you stay with it until completion.

The Ancient wisdom writers said:

"Endings are better than beginnings.

Sticking to it is better than standing out." *

Is it, though?

How many things have you seen through to the bitter end that you should have just let go?

How many things have ended, and you're yet to find closure?

How many times have you felt a sense of urgency that probably isn't real or proportionate or is imposed by some social construct of what being good or successful or faithful looks like?

Do we need to bring 2023 across the line? Finish strong and well? Stick whatever it is out, so you don't stand out?

Is there really such a thing as an ending?

Multiple times throughout the Biblical text, through the prophets, and through John's (we think) Revelation, God described Godself as the "First and the last, the beginning and the end."*

When you read that verse with a dualistic mindset, you might comfort yourself with the idea that God is at the start and end of things.

But when you read it through a non-dualistic lens, it becomes about flow, the obliteration of the concept of beginnings and endings in order to place our focus on the present moment: here. It's almost like God was saying: hey, don't worry about what was at the start and what might be at the end… be here, now.

From what I know of the Ancient Hebrew concept of time, it was not so much linear as in a calendar of weeks or a clock marking the hours, but it was rhythmic; time was a beat, a dance, a culmination of vibrational movement and energy.

So instead of being a deadline, instead of December 31 being some kind of milestone at which things must end so that the next day new things can begin, see it instead as a beat, a base note, part of the song, a step in the dance, getting you from one moment to the next no matter what is ending and what is yet to begin.

Because you, my friend, as everything that ends finishes and new things begin, you continue through it all…

Whether you feel like you won't make it, whether you can't wait for the end to come, whether you think the stress of getting it all done in time might just swallow you whole...

Don't allow a calendar to bully you into hustling, rushing, striving, or hiding.

Don't allow a holiday to twist what you want into what you think you should want.

Don't allow the passing of time, from one season into the next, rob you of this moment that ushers you across the threshold.

You don't have to finish strong or well or even at all to close out the year with honesty, integrity, and a sense of value. Nothing really ends anyway; there are just markers and stops and monuments along the movement of your life. Let the rhythm of it carry you on.

TRY THIS: “Come out of the circle of time and into the circle of love." Rumi.

Written by Liz Milani

See you in the App,

Liz Milani xo
Instagram: @thepracticeco 

From this week’s series titled " In The Middle of an Ending," with a subscription in the App. Hope to see you there.