322/365-2 Give Thanks for Final Stages

"Endings and Beginnings"

I struggled with today's photo.  I have admitted recently that I am in a creative rut, but it was more than that.  I sat for awhile trying to think about something that I could photograph.  Coming up with nothing, I thought a little more about final stages, about the end.  I realized that the source of my difficulties is that I don't really believe in absolute endings, but rather changes that spark new beginnings.  Endings and beginnings, in my way of thinking are not at opposite ends of a continuum,; rather, they are points side by side on the circle of life.

You would think that having experienced the loss of my dad this fall, my perception of final stages and the end would be quite different than it is.  Don't get me wrong, there were final stages, but those final stages led to new beginnings rather than absolute endings.

This time of year is confusing as well with regard to beginnings and endings.  The secular world sees the year as coming to an end.  Healthcare choices for 2015 need to be made.  Taxable donations need to be doled out.  New calendars need to be bought.  All before December 31st, the end of the year.  Yet as this world has its sights set on the coming end, the liturgical world is preparing to celebrate a new year with the beginning of Advent and a new church year.  Beginnings and endings side by side.

We won't even talk about the academic year, which has a whole other schedule of beginnings and endings.

I know this all sounds a lot like that cliche saying, "When one door closes, another door opens."  I really don't like that particular saying.  It sounds like we are playing "Let's Make A Deal."  And who says that when a door closes it is an end?  Perhaps doors close to give us time to think, to pray, to be still and know.  Perhaps it is that same door that will re-open but at that point we are in a different place.  Is that a beginning or an end?  Perhaps it's both.  And if it's both, which is more significant?  Can one exist without the other?  Or do either of them really exist?

So you see,  my mind is awash with many questions and few answers thus the source of my frustration and difficulty with today's prompt.

So now I will end my day by beginning to sleep so to awake in the morning at the end of the night to begin a new day...