LAST DAY TO PLAY WITH MAUKIE & THE ART OF SAYING GOODBYE

 

 

Today is the last day to play with Maukie the virtual cat in my sidebar.  I hate it.  I've gotten attached to the little guy.

 

And over the last few years, I have lost too many beloved pets, friends, and other things ---

 

Although I have gotten my health back.

 

 

I'm not great at saying

Good-Bye. 

Yet, it is an inherent part of life.

 

 

At the end of all things is the beginning of another. Like black and white, yin and yang, the beginning and end pairing is bound together in time and space.

 

Like matter's spacial boundaries, time's beginning and end appear to be discreet only due to our inability to recognize their seamless nature.

 

 

As a former counselor, the temporal beginnings and ends that I find most fascinating are developmental in course.

 

From child to teen, teen to adult, single adult to married adult, facilitating life's transitions is an integral part of living.

 

Within these periods hearts are broken, jobs are lost, babies are born, and dreams are realized.

 

 

Just look through your closet --

 

 

You might find 

 

college tank tops, grad school cable crewnecks, bar hopping stilettos, interview suits, beach cover-ups, first date outfits, running gear, and perhaps a swathed wedding dress or a somber dress for funerals with too many grim memories:

 

 

A timeline of a life.

 

 

Our clothing over a course of a lifetime can become the embodiment of flashbulb memories. Those memories, which are vivid recollections of an emotionally charged moment.

 

So, too, can objects like childhood toys, furniture bought together with a loved one ...

 

or a silly widget virtual cat like Maukie with whom I played absently when life was filled with hurt.

 

 

Even animals grieve ...

 

 

   Animal grief is widespread and the depth with which many animals grieve and mourn the loss of family and friends is heart wrenching.

 

 

Life Stages ...

 

 

   Have you noticed that as soon as you get halfway comfortable with the stage you're in, life drop-kicks you into the next stage unexpectedly ...

 

 

   Where you are a rookie yet again, learning all the rules by breaking them and bloodying yourself.

 

   Stage after stage of life is like that ...

 

saying a reluctant good-bye to the comfortable known for the uneasy fumblings in the dark of the unknown.

 

 

It is only in looking back that we see the treasures and beauty of the last stage ...

 

so despite the discomfort strive to find the warmth, laughter, and friendship in whatever uneasy life stage you find yourself.