Creating a New Beginning

Creating a New Beginning

(When crying, fighting and resisting can’t stop the Inevitable)

 by Stephanie Pletka

I LOVE new beginnings.  I love it when a new door opens, new friends join my circle, new adventures, new clothes, new life, new new new.  It excites me.  It brings oxygen, a freshness to a season.

But with new beginnings, it also means an end.  When a butterfly extends its beautiful wings, it’s no longer a crawling caterpillar. Eventually a swimming tadpole becomes a frog perched on a lily pad and such is the circle of life. You have to say goodbye to a new season, a great job lost to a move, a friendship that runs its course.  It’s the end of something that helped make you the person you are today. A cycle, a process to becoming you.

I love new beginnings, but endings are tough.  It’s a closure, a termination, a finale – that perhaps you didn’t fore see.

Who knew that was the last…

…conversation, the last hug, the last laugh, the last goodbye.

I have a hard time with endings:  whatever you enjoyed, whoever you laughed with, there’s something about laying that season to rest.  A death of sorts.

My oldest son started high school this year. I dropped him off and said goodbye, but as I made the long walk to the car, as if someone had snatched my son, literally stole him from me, his life, all the good times, our time together, his first word, how he ran to me as a toddler, as if I were his only comfort – flew through my mind.  I made it to the car before I lost it. The ugly cry times 10.

We had the best summer, traveling cross country, hiking through 9 national parks, laughing, telling stories, sharing wisdom for future trials to come.  Those priceless moments you wish could be preserved in a bottle for years to come.

Even though they can make you crazy, there’s something to be said for all the long walks, late night talks, laughs in the kitchen, reflection on the porch swing, stories told that only your inner circle, your peeps, the wolf pack truly understand.  They are your people. Tears cried, hearts broken, laughs that turn into snorts.

Those moments you argue and make up, cause blood is thicker than water; and no matter how far they drive you to madness, if an outside force interferes, you would jump on their back and fight for their cause, till the bloody, dirty end, with clear eyes and full hearts.

From those late night PB&J’s and talks till the wee hours of the morning about life, love and the pursuit of happiness.

Those seasons of pools and popsicles and jumping off the pier.

It’s the subtle moments that seem so nonchalant, yet make the lasting impression.

We’re raising our kids to leave us, well at least leave the basement, to be productive citizens, to go into the world and be great people that throw color and kindness and truth and adventure on mankind, yet when the college applications, girlfriends and boyfriends begin to widen our inner circle, we see them as the enemy, the one taking away all those memories, those moments, our partner in crime.  And yet, the entire time, we’re the ones raising them to go, to be, to inspire, to fly.

But with every new ending, life gives us a beginning.  That’s how it’s intended.  That was the intention the entire time, yet we loose sight of the end, or should I say:  The Beginning.  It’s what makes the world go round, what increases our circles, what allows us to become the butterfly, to grow and thrive.

Instead of seeing our season as a beginning to an end, let’s view the end as a New Beginning, a new chapter, a place to increase our inner circle, increase our love and allow our hearts to grow bigger.

Here’s to endings, that become New Beginnings.

Isaiah 43:19

I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

 Stephanie Pletka created the parenting blog SpitupandHeels.com to encourage other moms from toddlers to teenagers to find humor in the ordinary.  From carpool to counseling hearts, every season of life (good or bad) will not last forever.  She’s written for various online magazines, blogs and newspapers, encouraging parents to create a slow down button to design the life you’ve always dreamed.  When not traveling with her family, she resides in Scottsdale, AZ with her software designer husband and 4 children