Endings-- and Beginnings
Genesis is, of course, the first book in the Bible, but it is interesting that the title puts the emphasis where it ought to be-- on the beginnings of things. The truth is that there are many "beginnings" in Genesis, and "beginnings-again"-- because there are many endings in Genesis! Yet after each ending, there comes another beginning-- and so it is that God continues to work.
I've had an ending this week. A couple of days ago, I was terminated by my employer. I like that word, "terminated." It felt like a death, like a way of living or even a Life I had known and enjoyed was being ended, killed.
As an end-of-life-care chaplain, I am familiar with endings-- most of those, other people's! Dying certainly precipitates one sort of loss, but being terminated precipitates another. And we ask the same question: Is the Life after death? Believe me, after this "death" of mine, I want to know!
And truly, this is something for me to find out, something for me to discover. If "Life is what you make it," then I have an opportunity to "make" my life in a new way. But we in the bereavement field also often say: "Life is loss." True enough, since as we live, we do seem to suffer more losses, and experience more endings. But equally true must be the Genesis-based premise, along the lines that "Life is also beginnings again."
I am staking my living at this moment on that premise, the part about "beginning again." And I'm beginning again with a faith-sense that I've occasionally lost in the course of previous endings, namely that God is Always Present, as much in the Ending as in the Beginning Again.
I know that I have not utilized this blog as well as I might have in the past. I had intended it to be a place for me to go and muse. And when I didn't, I told myself it was because I didn't have enough time! Well, I have "enough time" now! So let's see whether this space may not become a place of consolation and sharing.
Dear Reader, would you walk this "winding path" with me? I look forward to sharing this part of my journey with you... Thank you for the companionship of your attention...
Blessings!
I've had an ending this week. A couple of days ago, I was terminated by my employer. I like that word, "terminated." It felt like a death, like a way of living or even a Life I had known and enjoyed was being ended, killed.
As an end-of-life-care chaplain, I am familiar with endings-- most of those, other people's! Dying certainly precipitates one sort of loss, but being terminated precipitates another. And we ask the same question: Is the Life after death? Believe me, after this "death" of mine, I want to know!
And truly, this is something for me to find out, something for me to discover. If "Life is what you make it," then I have an opportunity to "make" my life in a new way. But we in the bereavement field also often say: "Life is loss." True enough, since as we live, we do seem to suffer more losses, and experience more endings. But equally true must be the Genesis-based premise, along the lines that "Life is also beginnings again."
I am staking my living at this moment on that premise, the part about "beginning again." And I'm beginning again with a faith-sense that I've occasionally lost in the course of previous endings, namely that God is Always Present, as much in the Ending as in the Beginning Again.
I know that I have not utilized this blog as well as I might have in the past. I had intended it to be a place for me to go and muse. And when I didn't, I told myself it was because I didn't have enough time! Well, I have "enough time" now! So let's see whether this space may not become a place of consolation and sharing.
Dear Reader, would you walk this "winding path" with me? I look forward to sharing this part of my journey with you... Thank you for the companionship of your attention...
Blessings!
posted by TRXTR | 11:26 AM
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