The End

/ roughwighting

the beginning, the endAs much as I’d like to come up with my own famous quote– like Shakespeare’s “to be or not to be,” I can’t find one in my writer’s creative basket for “the end.”

However, I can write an acrostic:

 

 

Either we continue on from whence we came, or

Nodding off to another level, we

Divine that the end was just the beginning.

existential questions

Sunrise or Sunset?

A story finishes with The End. Kaput. But is the story finished? Do the characters live on, at least in the reader’s mind? If so, the story and the characters are never-ending.

A week before my dad died he announced, “I’ve decided that, when I die, it’s over. There is nothing left. I don’t go anywhere. It is truly the end.”

I held his hand when he released his last breath.

He was wrong.

photography, clouds

 

The Beginning.

 

 

 

78 thoughts on “The End”

  4. Faith is a word filled with many interpretations and variations. No matter where your definition may lead you, may it do so in a capacity that allows an infinite number of beginnings ahead of you. Thank you, Pam ~ beautiful and inspiring, as always.

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  15. dearest pam…I looked up the word agnostic in Webster’s it said what it said….guess what the word directly beneath was? AGNUS DEI–latin for lamb of God….LOL!!!! great sense of humor!!!
    Dad’s laughing at that one!!!! Just love your thought provoking work and you!!

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  16. Your post brought a smile to my face. As if to underscore your message, as I began typing this comment a golden ray of sunlight burst through silver clouds on a rainy morning. That too made me smile.

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    • Took me a while to respond to your comment, Russ, but I assure you – when I read it on the day you wrote it, I burst out into a huge smile. A golden ray of sunshine shining through clouds – I used to tell my kids that this was called “God’s Rays.”

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  19. I’m pretty much open to anything, Pam, including the end. But if nature teaches us anything, it’s that life travels in circles, and that endings aren’t really endings at all but steps in an eternal loop. Beautiful reflection, my friend.

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  20. Beautiful! I love “The Beginning.”

    That’s what I always think about as family and friends make their transition. When I was with my mother, I felt like I was there to help “birth” back into her true form. She was there when I made my entry and I was there to love her into another dimension.

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    • Oh, Patricia, what heartfelt deep words. That’s exactly how I felt being with my dad at his last breath. It was so much like a birth – I was amazed that I’d never heard it described that way before.

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  25. There is a adjective in German, vergänglich, meaning fading, transient, ephemeral, volatile, short-lived. I think everything eventually fades away, but then what? It changes form and becomes something else. That would be a new beginning. I hope so, thank you for this thought provoking post.

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    • Ah, vergänglich is wonderful word – thanks for sharing. Yes, we all fade, but as in nature, we all come back in one form or another, huh? Does a tree come back as a tree? Probably. ❤

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  26. Pam, this is beautiful, so tender and in many ways true I hope. Lovely acrostic – recently just coming across these and love the idea of them. The final line is just perfect, finishing (or is that beginning) with ‘Divine that the end was just the beginning.’

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  28. Pam, as usual, you are on to and into the compelling matters that all too many people avoid like the plague but that they’ll have to visit at some point, willing or not, conscious or not. What your writing in this and the previous blog (“Days of…”) are part of being a really, truly “good” daughter and a fully alive, soul-full person. Yes!

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  30. I believe we may get signs from our passed on loved ones, Pam. A friend got the hat tipped off her head that her Dad always wore (like a fedora style) on a windless day.
    My youngest daughter and I were driving home from the anniversary party. Dad who had cancer given 4 months to live, had given cards for six years of holidays and anniversary cards leading up to their 50th. My brothers and I had invited family to see the Golden Anniversary card opened with my aunt, (her sister) and uncle there too.
    The shoelace tied bundle was made by the living man, but the rocket scientist was the one who decided to play with two stars, as we looked forward (through the windshield) into the night. xx Two falling stars straight ahead! **

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  31. A wonderful acrostic my friend, and a beautiful exploration of the beginning/end paradox. You leave me curious – I hope it’s not inappropriate for me to ask – but what made you conclude ‘He was wrong’. Blessings, Harula xx

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    • Harula – you are NEVER inappropriate, nor is your question here. But the answer is intricate, intense, and indescribable. But if I ever figure out how to explain, I’ll take your path, and do so in poetry. xo

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      • Thank you dearest Pam for this sweet response. It affirms to me the vital importance of poetry, because language is limited and limiting when it comes to expressing/capturing life’s mysteries and magic. I think poetry is the only way, with language, for expressing the ‘big stuff’. Other art forms too of course – but in terms of words, i think poetry does it best. Blessings and love to you, Harula xxx

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