The latest article for Inspire magazine.

 

Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

I feel certain that each and every one of us has, at a time, had to start again.  As Carl Bard so aptly said – “although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending”.  I simply love that adage.

Whilst Mother Earth has the annual four seasons, so do we too, at times, have our own personal spring, that follows our own personal winter.

I recently had to face a multitude of fears and demons, and walk through an emotional cobbled street of hot coals, in order to reach the end of one road, and yet the beginning of another.  At times I felt sure that there was simply no way I would be able to complete the task at hand, yet, when extreme mental might was needed, there I found it, nestled comfortably on a pillow labeled “inner strength found here”.

It is when we feel our weakest that we are often in fact our strongest; it is when one door closes that a gilt-lined castle sized door opens up right before our eyes; it is when one period of our lives ends, that another, more exciting one begins and, like a brand new sparkling sunrise, we are given the gift and the opportunity to start over.

The trick, of course, is to try not to drag the mistakes of the previous season into the clean palate of this new, fresh, lime green period.  Whilst this is all good in theory, we all know that this is not as easy as it sounds.  And so, whilst the possibility of new opportunities excites me, I know I need to turn away from past memories of mistakes, and rush boldly forward into unchartered territory – completely believing that the best is yet to come.

I have studied at length great entrepreneurs who have lost all they had, only to turn things around and go on to succeed far more than even they could have dreamt of.  When I completed my Creative Writing course last year, we were cautioned ad nauseam as to how few writers truly succeed, and given examples of authors who submitted numerous manuscripts which were turned down, yet, they kept going and approaching new author houses, finally to win their own race, and with record scores.  One such example is “The Help” – a novel by Kathryn Stockett which was later turned into a first rate movie.  Kathryn submitted her manuscript more than sixty times before it was finally accepted.  She never gave up; as one door slammed rudely in her face, she knocked politely on the next one.  Giving up was never an option.  And last but not least, my favourite example – world class American band Lady Antebellum – whose female lead, Hillary Scott, was thrown out of American Idol in round one.  She took the rejection well, and moved on to look for other opportunities… and take a look at her now.

There is most certainly a place in the world for those try, try and try again, and whilst I have in the past been prone to wilting just before the finish line, the past decade has taught me that this world is not for sissies, and that those who are prepared to get up and carry on when they have no idea how they will make it through the next minute, never mind hour, will be the individuals who win in the end, and who live to see the dawn of another super-charged day, which is literally alive with possibility.

My own story involves a move of home, across provinces, down valleys and transcending rivers.  I was warned, more than once, that a move was incredibly stressful, but I ignored the warnings and felt sure I could handle it all in my stride.  Well, handle it I did, but stride, well, I am not so sure.  There were times when I traded my water glass for a large wine goblet, and there were times too when even my water glass neatly read “Bombay Sapphire” on the side of it, and no-one was happier than me.  When trucks broke down or got lost, or both, and when precious worldly goods arrived in a state of disrepair, I thought for real that I was circling the drain they call insanity.  All that being said, one of my great friends gently reminded me that to throw a tantrum or give in to a “mid-life meltdown” would only have harmed one person, me, and really, was it worth it?  Sage advice indeed.

The move is now behind me and I realise that it was so worth the emotional roller-coaster it took to get to this point; to go and face those aforementioned emotional demons, to pick myself up, dust myself off, and carry on.  And whilst I realise too that there are some endings that are truly final, and never to be re-explored, so too are there brand new, shiny beginnings. 

So for those who are tempted to give up, my advice would be not to.  We should all learn from those who have tried and failed, and continued until they have succeeded.  Life does bring us endings, but focus not on those; instead, turn your face to the sunrise, and to the new day, to the opportunities that lie ahead, and focus only on starting over, and creating that brand new ending.