As we approach the end of the year, many people evaluate the bests of the year – movies, books, plays, exhibitions, and so on. It’s a summing up of the previous 12 months, a conclusion that happens, whether we like it or not. What if we could celebrate more endings as much as we celebrate beginnings?

The thing about endings is that they are also beginnings, both, together. We graduate, ending some portion of our schooling, and with that, we begin a life without school, or go to a more advanced level of school. We stop working in a “regular” job for someone else and start retirement, however we define that, which may include working at a new job that reflects our passion, or traveling without time restraints, or really paying attention to a hobby that we’ve never had time for before. We end relationships and start learning how to live solo, or start to concentrate on a relationship with our own selves, or start a relationship with a different person. We stop harvesting from our gardens and start a time of rest for both the ground and us. Our lives stop, and the mystery of what happens next begins.

It has been said that the fear we feel when beginning a new venture in our lives is not the fear of the new, but a fear of leaving the known and the familiar. I believe it.

Leaving our comfort zone is a challenge, and a beginning of something else entirely: a new way of being, a risk that we must take in order to grow.

Here’s to our growth!

Photo by: Min An / Pexels