Hellos and Goodbyes: "Every Ending is a New Beginning"

HELLO!

GOODBYE!

Recently I was leaving our local hospital on the joyous day of the birth of our seventh grandchild! Just outside the front doors I met a dear friend who's elderly husband had been ill for quite awhile. This was a particularly bad day for her and it looked like he would not last the night. I was struck by the drama of life, by beginnings and endings. I felt sad for her and happy for us, and a little guilty at my joy. And yet this is how life is meant to be, beginnings and endings.

Many years ago my family was experiencing one of our own endings. My dad has only died a couple of months before, suddenly, at the age of 59. We were steeped in grief, heartbroken. It was 1980 and my mom and my sister and I were in California attending one of our annual art seminars. 

On our day off, Sunday, we decided to attend the Chrystal Cathedral where popular preacher and positive thinker Robert Schuller was the pastor. The first words bellowed out of him as he began:

"Every ending is a new beginning!"

Well, that was it for the three of us. The tears started to fall. We had one kleenex to share. It was a tough and very natural expression of grief and part of the process. When something or someone has died, it's good to acknowledge that loss and what it means to us. Feeling sad transitions us to somehow living on without that special loved one.

There is a lot of grief associated with depression. We feel sad for the loss of feeling good. We are sad for lost activities. We are sad for the loss of enjoying life. But life is full of beginnings as well as endings and depression does not last forever.

Hellos and goodbyes are a natural part of life. As for depression I would rather say 'goodbye' to a bad mood than 'hello' to a bad mood. I would rather say 'hello' to a good mood than 'goodbye' to a good mood.

One of the wonderful things on my morning walk is farmer's fields in all of their glory. At this time of year when everything is dying, a field of new fall wheat is a delightful contrast to the falling leaves, the bare trees, the yellow color of death and dying. This field of little baby blades of grass is a reminder that even in the midst of death there is also birth.

Sometimes we need to look for beginnings. But on this particular day, there it was, a whole field of beginnings, smiling at me and reminding me that 'every ending has a new beginning'.

We think of endings as sad, and they are, but some endings go out with a glorious show of colour like this:

HOW ABOUT YOU? How are you feeling today? Are you grieving over endings? Are you grieving over losses? Are there any beginnings you can see if you look around at nature or at your life? Maybe even look out the window at a mother walking by pushing a baby stroller? Or go to the pet shop and look at the puppies and kittens. 

Don't give up! There is hope for depression.