The Holiday Is Over
An end is almost always attached to another beginning — and there's a next beginning only those who go all the way get to see. But before all of that, there's one thing to do first: wash your face.
The holiday is over.
Time to return to daily life. There are things to do, things put off, things that need speed again. The heart that loosened a little over the break must be gathered up, and we must run forward again.
But a new start doesn't have to be grand.
You don't need to draw up new plans, make mighty resolutions, or declare that from today you'll be a completely different person. It's enough to start with opening your eyes in the morning and raising your body upright.
First: wash your face.
Wash with cold water, wake the mind, and look once at the summer light coming through the window. Or step outside. After that, yesterday's time and today's time separate, just a little.
In life we keep fearing “ends.” We regret the end of a holiday, regret the end of good times, and struggle to accept the end of certain relationships and work.
But think about it quietly, and an end is almost always attached to another beginning.
When the holiday ends, daily life begins again; finish one piece of work, and the next is waiting. At the end of one season another arrives, and at the place you reach after a long run, a new road comes into view.
So going all the way to the end may not truly mean everything ends.
There is a next beginning that only those who have gone all the way get to see.
We can't know exactly where the work we're doing now leads. We don't know who the person we met today will become in a few years, or how large the small thing we started today will grow. That's why life occasionally produces moments like magic.
An ordinary day when nothing seemed likely to happen can change the direction of a life, and something begun without much thought can turn out, years later, to be the most important thing of all.
So it's fine to hold a little expectation today too.
You may think the whole world is blessing you, or believe one small piece of magic is hiding somewhere in the day.
And then — run again, with strength.
Because at every end, another beginning is always waiting for us.
Of course, before all of those stories, there is one thing to do first.
First: wash your face.