Endings

By Karen Gibson

At the end of the movie, Hope Floats, Sandra Bullock, as Birdee Calvert Pruitt, quotes her recently deceased mother’s philosophy about life to her daughter.  The particular line about life is, “Beginnings are scary.  Endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most.”

Perhaps beginnings are not so much about being scary as they are exciting.  Generally, when starting something new you are naturally excited about the new venture.  There is undoubtedly uncertainty about what lies ahead and how well you will cope with everything.  There are many decisions to be made and perhaps this is where the scariness exists for most of us.  However, the scariness or excitement quickly dissipates as one steps forward into uncharted territory.  With each step the scary “beginning” loses its luster of newness and becomes the middle filled with choices and opportunities.

It is important to start and try new things.  It makes us grow and expand our knowledge.  Certainly this is true with quilting as with most other things we humans choose to do.  It is also the people we meet and experiences along the way that enriches our lives and broadens our perspective and understanding about life in general.  This is true whether or not a new venture proves to be successful.  We learn as much from what works well as from things that don’t work out.  It is indeed true that the middle does count for a lot.

That brings me to endings.  Not every ending is sad.  When a particularly challenging project comes to a conclusion most times I feel a great deal of relief.  Sometimes the ending borders on euphoria at having finished and being able to move on to something new.  There are so many different ways to refer to an ending.  A few words that I could think of: Climax, Close, Conclude, Culminate, Death, Decease, Demise, Die, Downfall, Extinction, Finish, Finale, Peak, Resolution, Termination, Winding Down, and Wrapping Up.

Lots of endings are indeed sad.  Some that immediately come to mind are: the loss of someone or something dear to us, the closing of a business, the closing of a school, the end of a party, etc.  Everyone could come up with a lengthy list of sad endings.  One of the things I must now add to my list is the end of “The Perfect Quilters Retreat” here at Thunder Bay Resort.  The decision has been made that this will be final year for the retreats.  If you have been thinking about trying a retreat, please do it soon before the opportunity is no longer available.  There is a wonderful selection of teachers and projects from which to choose in this final year.  Even though the end is now near, for me it is a bittersweet ending as there are so many wonderful people that I have met and new things I have learned from the experience – proving that it is the middle that counts the most.