I’ve been thinking a bit about beginnings the last few weeks. As Brook Hollow stands ready for a new owner, I think about the Trail house which hasn’t broken ground yet, but in my mind is a significant new beginning in life. I’ve seen the inspirational memes that talk about “one door closing” and I think they are simple truisms for the most part. The classic quote is “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.” I think that one is attributed to Alexander Graham Bell. Some spinoffs in the same mindset include “If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, live will reward you with a new hello” which is a good thought and a kind of comical one is “If a door closes, quit banging on it.” and my favorite, “And suddenly you know… It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.“

Selling Brook Hollow is to close a door on a time in my life. I’ve grown comfortable with that closing, I’ve picked my heart up from where it was dropped, and grew strong enough to carry it around on my own for a while, but life is so much more full, when we share the load, and when others trust us to share their load. I think thats the magic of new beginnings.

Emerson wrote along these lines, proposing we not “go where the path may lead, but instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” I like the idea of a beginning being a building effort, like the trail house will be. In my mind, the traditions of building always involve others, its a team effort, even though Thoreau might object and cite his house in the woods as a solo effort, I’m on the side of “teamwork makes the dream work” that with a trusted partner, the trail can be blazed, to a new place, not the trail or trails we were on before.

Along the new trail is discovery after discovery, magic, beauty, perhaps challenging terrain, but with a helping hand we can make our way and arrive at a new place. I don’t pretend to know a lot about poetry and philosophy but T.S. Eliot’s “East Coker” has some lines that resonate especially strongly today. I think he refers to a new destination when he writes

“In order to arrive there, to arrive where you are, to get to where you are not, you must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy (thats the pain or sadness that goes along with closing a door I think) in order to arrive at what you do not know, you must go by a way which is the way of ignorance (thats the humbling of oneself to learn about yourself and others i think) In order to possess what you do not possess, you must go by the way of dispossession (thats the letting go of things and people who are on the other side of the closed door i think) In order to arrive at what you are not, you must go through the way in which you are not (for me this was days of quiet introspection augmented by guided insights by others) And what you do not know is the only thing you know. (I think of this as what lies ahead on the trail, not knowing, embracing the unknown, being humble to discovery along the way) And what you own is what you do not own (This part is exciting maybe, perhaps the trail is more the way than a destination, maybe it speaks to a heart that will be mine as mine becomes theirs?) And where you are is where you are not.

I think of that last line as an affirmation that our past is our past but perhaps does not define who we are and where we will be in the future. I like reading those snippets from his much longer poem. Like most art, I believe Eliot’s genius lies in what he helps me see in my daily life, and I can say my glass is definitely half full or better today!

Its probably true that each of us has to find a way to close our own doors, and find our way to the one that opened to us. But if someone seeks your help with closing, offer a light hand to them, support them as they pull open the new one, we all need to be able to see a better future.

Be well, be good to each other, we’re all we’ve got.