When You Feel Like Something is Ending But You Don't Know What
The practices and rituals that hold us
This week on The Next Right Thing we’re talking about endings: the kinds you anticipate, the kinds you choose, and the kinds that take you by surprise. In the episode, I share 3 types of practices to help us move through (and maybe even beyond) these different types of endings: a communal practice, a personal practice, and a tiny ritual. You can listen to (or read the transcript of) How to Find Low-Key Closure right here.
Endings and beginnings have been on my mind. Last year I created a Collection of audio blessings for hellos and goodbyes and made them available for FREE when you purchase the hardcover of How to Walk into a Room,
If it helps, Amazon has it now as part of their “buy 3 for the price of 2” so you can get some for gifts I’m just saying. And we quietly added the Hellos and Goodbyes Workbook there as well, which is also FREE with your purchase of the book.
There’s a QR code in the back of the book - follow the instructions to get your free gifts! For every book you purchase, you get another access code to the Blessings Collection which means anyone you gift the book to can get the Blessings Collection (and the Workbook) for free too. The Quiet Collection app is currently the ONLY place where the workbook lives (there are dupes on Amazon and they are all made by fake robots that have nothing to do with me.)
Step one: Purchase the hardcover
Step two: Scan the QR code in the back
Step three: Follow the instructions on the screen to receive your access code. You will need to install The Quiet Collection app:
Get the app at the App Store for iPhone
Get the app on Google Play for Android
Coming Soon in the app: a brand new Advent Collection! I’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready. Now, on to today’s post!
Some endings are obvious and planned for (a graduation, a retirement, or the end of a contract) and others are discerned (should I stay or should I go?). And then there are those endings that take us by surprise, sometimes in a good way and other times not so much. We can’t plan for them because we don’t know they’re coming. But we also can’t ignore them once they’re here.
Over the last few months, I’ve been sensing an ending that I can’t name or categorize, but it looms and floats and carries some weight. What it’s saying, I don’t yet know.
Part of it, I’m sure, is normal after a national election. Another part of it is that our son is a senior in high school and will graduate in the spring. An anticipated ending for sure, but a different one from when the twins graduated as this one will mark the beginning of a different season for me and John, one where no kids live at home (theoretically).
But there’s another layer to my own intuition, something stirring deep within that tells me I’m preparing for a new ending even though I can’t yet name exactly what it is. Maybe you feel it in your own life too? Is this a season of life thing? An exhausted human thing? All of the above, I’m sure.
No matter the type of ending you might be facing, named or not-yet-named, there are practices we can rely on to help ground us in our moments and keep us from spinning all the way out.
Here are some of mine.