Leaving

“Life is a series of beginnings and endings.” How very true. There have been a series of beginnings and endings in my life and basically all of them are related to the thought “If you leave”. Thankfully we were able to leave together. At least ever since I’ve met my husband.

I’ve mentioned previously how important my family is to me. I couldn’t bear the thought of one of them leaving or me leaving them. I guess one day I will have to face it, given that my kids will grow up and eventually leave. And I will let them leave.

In order for someone to be able to return, you have to let go of them first.

So one day I will have to let them go. I will have to let them leave and I will have to hope that they will return happily. Return when they are still singles, return with their partners and hopefully return with their spouses and maybe one day with their children. Only time will tell.

But this doesn’t only apply to people.

For now leaving for us usually means leaving a place we live. A place we consider home. Only to find another home. Home is where the people are I love. And as long as they leave with me it will never really hurt as much as it could.

Life is a series of beginnings and endings. We leave one job to start another; we quit cities, countries, or continents for a fresh start; we leave lovers and begin new relationships. What was the last thing you contemplated leaving? What were the pros and cons? Have you made up your mind? What will you choose? (Daily Post Daily Prompt – If You Leave)

Life is indeed a series of beginning and endings. It starts with us leaving the home we grew up in. Maybe we have left a relationship or a job prior, we’ve left a school, maybe we’ve left friends behind. We left to go traveling, we left to go to University. In doing so we have to close one door to be able to open another. Or at least it seems like it. Sometimes the door we think we closed remains slightly open. And then the question is if we every will walk through it again.

Sometimes we choose to leave and sometimes we are forced to move on. Life has its way, you know.

I do believe that once you’ve left something that was familiar for you you will never truly return. At least not as the same person you were before. So even if you return, it will be a new beginning. A beginning in a familiar surrounding but as a changed person.

I’ve left. I’ve left the home I grew up in, I’ve left relationships and jobs. I’ve left cities and I’ve left the country I grew up in. In doing so I found myself. And I found the people I love having around me. Leaving what was familiar brought me to an even better place. Even if sometimes it did not seem that way.

When you leave someone or something you like or even love, it hurts. If you are left it hurts even more. And it takes a while to get used to the new situation. It takes energy to start moving forward, no matter if you were in charge of that change or not.

We will never be able to avoid changes, we will never be able to avoid leaving or being left. It just happens. The more we try to fight it the harder it will be.

Embrace it, go with it, keep your mind open. The new door that opens up might feel scary. Maybe you even think that there’s no way for you do do it, to walk through it. But there is always a way. You can always do it. You just need to make that very first step and then a new world with happy moments and heaps of memories to be made awaits you.

Go for it! Open that new door. Maybe the monster you fear behind it might not be as scary as you think…