Everyday Canvas

At What Point, the End?

Prompt: Who can say at what point dying begins?

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I don’t know who can say or know the truth of dying, but I would say, when living begins, dying begins, for every beginning starts from some other beginning’s ending. It is the puzzle of the chicken-and-the-egg. In other words, every exit line, dying, or ending is an entry, like the seasons repeating themselves.

Since we don’t see the other side of the exit door, or dying, we feel sad for almost all endings. This sadness comes from accepting the validity and past importance of the life well lived and finished. Marcus Aurelius said: “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”

A beginning is a blank page. We fill it by digging within ourselves and discovering what will or can happen in our lives. This helps us to do our part in the world by being interested in living fully every section of the time allotted to us. A beginning has to do with a sense of hope, a sense of future. A good beginning deserves boldness, zeal to be wise, and excitement for adventure. When we watch a new life, a baby, let’s say, don’t we see how eager he is to experiment everything?

Beginnings are magical, springing up suddenly and running their course, but if we get stuck at the beginning, the ending will be meaningless; therefore, our internal peace can come if we don’t look back, or if we do, we do it sanely, logically, with understanding and without bias. Mostly, all beginnings are wonderful.

Still, it is good to know when something has reached its end, as this points to a cycle completed, a circle closed, a door shut, a book finished, or whatever it is that has died, because this shows progress. This shows another cycle, another circle, another book will begin and another door will open, if only to repeat the process again. No wonder they say, “If God closes one door, He will open another.”

When we begin anything, most of us can recognize its ending from far away, but the beginning lulls us into believing it will continue forever; yet, as hard as we try to hold on, the ending comes. The ending or dying is the part already promised, the beginning’s potential for what will be lived, loved, and left behind, and because of that promise, we all become curious about the ending or dying, like some readers who, after reading a few pages from a book, turn to the back pages to find what happens at the end and miss all the excitement in the middle.