“Change is the only constant.”
Our WR Director Michael Hindes brought an intriguging word: “Season’s don’t begin with a beginning, they always begin with an ending.” While birth always seems to be the logical place to begin definition of a new season, autumn always precedes winter which precedes spring, it’s just the way life works.
At our WR training camps, we spend several days on this concept of grieving. The World Race is a new beginning! The new beginning can’t begin until the grieving of the past has occurred. I’ve seen racers on the field try and begin without truly grieving the past and growth is always stunted.
More frequently than that, I’ve seen alumni racers end their race without truly grieving the change of seasons. As I write this I think to myself “dang, ‘grieving’ is such a loaded word, can’t we use something a little more optimistic?” As I sit here, I conclude from my experience the truth: ‘grieving’ is exactly the write word to use here.
There’s always a necessity for grieving a season where growth occurred. There’s something desperate about not losing what was once so wonderful. The things we fight to learn, the obstacles we will ourselves to overcome, the truth that we glean and even the life we experience through freedom and a taste of destiny all become fiercely guarded.
We experience freedom only to dissolve back into fear that bondage is right around the corner. We experience life only to dread the thought of returning to death or sleep. We label every wilderness as the ultimate evil and sometimes back our way into them as we do everything in our power to avoid them.
If I’ve learned anything about seasons though, it’s that they always come. Always. Winter always follows the dying season of fall. Spring always follows a season of dormancy and winter. Harvest always follows a season of growth and new beginning. The harder we strive to avoid the changes in our lives, the more discontented, disillusioned and even angry we become. Season’s aren’t meant to be a lifetime.
There are some seasons we force upon ourselves at the wrong time and there’s elements of seasons we bottle up to try and preserve only to watch them wilt and fade. It’s time to grieve the changes. Grieving is both celebrative for what was gained and sorrowful for what was lost. It’s the right response, the honest response. In fact, when we look into the pain of grieving there’s a glimmer of life on the other side. It’s what makes the beginnings so magical and precious.
Fear of the result is always worse than the result that actually occurs. Don’t miss out on a great beginning because an ending is too hard to let go of.
