I had an email exchange with a friend of mine today, John T, that resulted in something I found very interesting and unexpected that I wanted to share with you.
He and another friend and I had created a Monday night conference call which the three of us had participated in for over three years. Every Monday night for 45 minutes to an hour, we engaged in an in-depth weekly study of an old tome on manifesting whatever you want through understanding how the laws of energy and vibration work.
It was an amazing study and inquiry that I fancied to be like the Socrates roundtable 2000 plus years ago. I loved it and so did they. We had all benefited greatly, and the time had come time that it had served its purpose for me, and I was finished. And while I knew it was the right time for me to end, there’s always a little feeling of nostalgia looking back at who we were at the beginning of the three plus years and who we had become. I was a little sad, even though I knew it was time, and I wasn’t sure how they would feel.
But I sent an email to them, and the response John T sent back was quite interesting. What he wrote back shed a different perspective on “when things end” that I think is relevant to every aspect of life. So I wanted to share it.
Here’s his email in its entirety:
Thank you for communicating this – and while I believe we are still ‘learning’ I think you are on the mark – I think that I am taking this ‘out into the world’ and it is my time to be experiencing it operating. At some point, returning to the study with a new cadre of experience and viewpoint.
There was a discussion at camp – about Mortal Combat – and that all Martial Arts involve Mortal Combat. In each interaction where you bring your full self and attention, that self either survives intact or encounters something it is not organized to handle and dies, to be reborn with a new understanding and ability.
I am reminded of words from Master Suzuki – “Everything Changes” – and teachings of Neville in “Resurrection”
The continual ‘breakdowns’ are part of the ‘death’ and now we are going to experience what the next ‘resurrection’ looks like!
Bon Voyage!
Love,
John T
Every time I read it, it reminds me of what a special person John T is, but I’m also touched by the truth of it.
No matter what ends — even if you’re really happy it’s over — no matter what, there’s always a little death in an ending. Of course, in that space, something else is reborn, which is the good part and we move on.
But many times, we face endings that we may feel we’re not ready for. Whether it’s a relationship, a loved one dying, reaching a milestone age, having your last kid leave home…. many things that are a part of every day life.
But no matter what the ending is, it’s an opportunity to reflect on your life a little bit — and to weave a bit more soul and meaning into your experience of life through that reflectoin.
As that chapter in your life closes, and you put the book back on the shelf — literally in our case — it’s a great time to take a moment to think about what that time, that era of your life, has meant to you. Or what that person has meant to you. For better or for worse. Think about who you were at the beginning … and who you have become.
When you see that path as a journey you were on, one that is now completed with its own particular meaning, it just might make it easier…. or juicer… as you look to the future and the new journey you’re about to begin.