Blog #116--Beginnings Guarantee Endings
While rummaging through old family memorabilia, I came across a photo of my grandfather with his prized Belgian plow horse. I don’t know who was more proud, my grandfather for owning a horse he considered special or the horse, glorified as essential to farming in the early 20th century. My grandfather loved that horse as an individual, but he was also grateful to have such a faithful partner to help him make a living as a farmer.
Musician Ian Anderson wrote a song for his group Jethro Tull called “Heavy Horses.” The lyrics lament how the draught horse became superfluous with the invention of the tractor. Its days were numbered, replaced by a powerful machine that could do more work in less time and didn’t require daily feeding. As with Elton John’s song “Circle of Life,” all beginnings also have endings. A few draught horses still exist, including the pampered Budweiser Clydesdales, but their value has diminished greatly since their heyday.
Along similar lines, Anderson wrote a song called “Farm On A Freeway” which describes a man who sold his farm so a freeway could be built in its place. But he soon realized the farm itself had been more important to him than the money he received for it. Both this instance and the story about draft horses are variations of the truism that every beginning also has an ending in this world. The up-and-down cycles of life on Earth affect us all.
My grandfather’s farmhouse was built around 100 years before it finally had to be destroyed due to lack of use and damage done by thieves. It had been a stabilizing influence in my life. I never wished to farm the land, but I visited frequently and even lived there briefly. At one time it was a self-sufficient farm, but the orchards, gardens and animals are now a distant memory.
Given the temporary nature of things, I have been surprised to discover that 11 of the 14 houses I’ve lived in during my life are still functional dwellings. But as each one deteriorates, it becomes more and more obvious that we cannot hold onto things forever. Eventually, we must let go of our attachments to all we presently hold dear. It isn’t easy to watch people and places we love reach an end point in their existence, but accepting that reality helps prevent the pain we might otherwise feel.
Russian scientist N.A. Kozyrev did some highly intelligent and imaginative studies proving that time is a form of energy. It pushes us forward whether we want it to or not. Kozyrev considered time another dimension of existence since nothing remains the same moment to moment. The energy pushing us forward guarantees continuing change within us and all others in our environment.
Accepting these changes can be tough. Whether it is the destruction of a family farm, the loss of a beloved family member or pet, or our own physical and mental demise as we age, endings are guaranteed for all who believe they reside in a three-dimensional world. Pretending we can prevent change only makes us suffer more when our world falls apart around us.
Like I described in my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life,” our lives are much like sky rocket fireworks. We shoot up at a breakneck pace and then explode into our full beauty and fulfill our life’s purpose before fading back into nothingness. Whether our existence is short or long, simple or complex, beautiful or blah, it is all we have. Accepting it with peace of mind rather than complaint allows us to fulfill our purpose more easily than fighting against the current of time’s energy.
Our bodies and present lives have a temporary existence. But the energy which animates us exists forever. Our consciousness is energy, so it has an eternal existence. Many call that energy our spirits. The more we can tune into our spiritual nature, the more likely we are to discover that which lasts forever. That way, there is no more pain from loss.
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