Resurfacing Material …R there hidden messages?

It is surprising how things we had once forgotten about reappear just when u need them most … just like this article called ‘So Many Good Byes Before the Eternal Hello’ by Jenina Gomes. Apart from this article, were other things that decided to make their appearance & presence felt at this point in my life like video recordings & cd’s by forgotten heroes, my most treasured books that are no longer in print or circulation today and most importantly poems & articles by close friends.

I spent the last two weeks, far away from the world of technology[that’s my cell & electronic note book…which looking back was one of my greatest achievements till date] & the madly evolving society --- saying long due goodbyes to certain people, places & parts of me, which were not letting me move forward - for fear of what might lie around the bend, for fear of letting go of things that were once comfort zones, for fear of moving away from familiar & secure settings…This article among other things gave me the much needed nudge to take the plunge, saying final Good Byes Before Eternal Hello’s !

In due course of time I will share the other things that matter most to me …but for now… here are excerpts from the article by Jenina Gomes …

So Many Good Byes before the Eternal Hello

Like a flock of homesick cranes flying back to their mountain nests, we are all pilgrims on life’s journey. We keep journeying, never arriving. There is always a further bend along the road to negotiate or another road to travel.

All along our journey we have to keep letting go: of places, people, and events. Some doors close others open. Every transition in life is the closing of one door and the opening of another.

Few of us are prepared for life’s transitions. We cling to what seems an irrevocable part of us. Yet, in every day life, there is a continuous stripping. We are that much the poorer for fighting the process. Part of us is comfortable with the journey, but another part resists the inevitable.

Sometimes relationships are the hardest to let go of, though they may have little basis at the core of our being. When they do, as the little Prince – who comes to earth from an asteroid in Saint-Exupery’s novel – discovers in his encounter with the fox, “only with the heart one can see rightly, what is essentially invisible to the eye”. When the little Prince said: “Come and play with me. I am so unhappy”, the fox replied: “I cannot play with you I am not tamed”. When a beautiful friendship develops between the fox & the little prince and the fox is now tamed, the fox reminds the prince, “Men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible for whatever you have tamed”.

That is the eternal miracle of life: the eternal in the hello. It does not die. We have so many goodbyes, sometimes to untamed parts of ourselves as well as others, before we are ready to be responsible forever for what we tame.

Different symbols speak to different people. For Joyce Rupp the sound of the geese going south in the winter spoke to a part of her that knew that transitions and change are necessary and that leaving secure situations is an essential part of growth. They also reminded her of the blessings that change and transitions have meant for her growth and all the special people who walked through her heart before she moved on.

Life is full of transitions. Learn to grow through them. Spiritual maturity comes when we learn to say our goodbyes fully so that we can say our own “Eternal Hellos”.