The End Of The World

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." Alexander Graham Bell

She hates her empty nest. It is tearing her apart. Her youngest child is at a university out of state. The middle child moved out on her own in an apartment the next town over. The oldest child accepted a job that took him 1,000 miles away from the family nest. It all happened this summer, and it shook her world to its foundation. She is trying to be happy for her kids, who all have something very exciting going on, but she is feeling pretty sorry for herself. Now it is very possible that they will be coming back home again to live. It happens with young adults who find the economy too challenging. They move back in with mom and dad. Some have gleefully pointed this out to her. Others (myself included) have told her of the joys of the empty nest. But for now, anyway, she's not buying what we're selling. Hopefully she will work through this, but right now, things are definitely not fine. It's the end of the world.

If you have lived for any length of time, you, too, may have experienced the end of the world as you know it. Perhaps it was a serious illness, the death of a loved one, the loss of a home, or the end of a relationship. Some people make a lifetime vocation of sitting and looking at the closed door. They long for the good old days. They live in the past. Then there are the others who spend some time mourning the loss, then look around to see the open door. They decide to walk through it, to experience life anew. It is always a choice, how we view the end of the world and whether we walk through the open door. It's always a choice, whether or not we'll be fine.

Susan