Farewells and Beginnings on The Calendar
My transition from 2023 to 2024 was seamless.
At the end of the year, I often feel a mixture of sadness and anxiety. It’s as if I should finish all the open work and send greetings to everyone before the end of the year.
There was none of them last year.
I watched the last sunset of the year on the opposite bank of the river Rhine, lost in the yellow, orange, and blue lights that leaked from behind the small tree-lined hills. I prepared an extravagant table for the last dinner of the year. I went to bed at the same time I normally go to bed.
I wanted to wake up early in the morning and start my daily routine as I love it so much.
So, I would have been sleeping in the first minutes of the new year if the fireworks lovers weren’t in the streets with their baskets full of fireworks.
Due to the loud explosion noises all over the city, I was not asleep as I planned. Instead, almost frightened by the explosions, I waited for the uncertain sleep time that some city dwellers had defined for us.
Still, I woke up early (not as early as I desired but ok) and easily adapted to the first morning of the year.
In the following days, unlike previous years, I was able to write down “D.M.2024” in my plans without getting confused.
Past days have taken their place in my case history, appearing from time to time, like the “this happened today in the past” sections of the calendar.
I think finally, I started to understand a little better that I can’t turn back time.
Farewell to the Week
To carry this awareness a little further, I have been saying “Farewell to the Week” for a while now.
Previously, this consisted of listening to songs I chose, writing in a journal, doing yoga, etc. Over time, an anchor formed in my mind. Nowadays, when I see the reminder on Sunday evenings I had set on my phone, “This week is over. A new week is starting.” thoughts appear for a moment.
Even though farewell is a bit of a strong word, I use it instead of “goodbye”. It clearly states that we will not experience that day and week again.
Of course, we can experience events, situations, and emotions over and over again, but never on the same day’s date.
This change, if not the event, reminds us that there may be other changing parameters of what repeats. Maybe with time, we have more internal or external resources to use. Maybe the people around us, the place we live, and the work we do are also different.
Thus, it is now possible to look at the repeated event from another perspective.
“You cannot wash in the same water twice” Heraclitus.
It’s sometimes a relief to say farewell to weeks when the difficulties outweighed. It’s a little harder for weeks when flow predominates. In both cases, I remember that there is a new week ahead of me, that these dates have not been set before, and that it is a good time to expect creative solutions.
Of course, some issues remain open and ongoing. However, this week’s part of the scenario happened and ended. In the most exciting scene, the message “to be continued…” appeared on the screen.
Every experience I have next week will be unique, even if it happens again and again.
“Farewells are difficult but necessary.”
This statement gave me the courage to say goodbye to some periods in my life, but in others, it was not possible even if I wanted to.
When I compare the two situations, I can see the huge space that being able to farewell opens up in my life after endings. I can see that they enlarged my inner space. Not being able to do it is like walking with sandbags.
This story I learned made me think a lot about the truth of farewells.
In the past, those who sent their relatives by ship to other countries or wars would buy a skein of wool. The person on the ship would hold one end of the rope and the skein at the other. The person on land would wait in the port until the skein was finished. When the rope started to tighten, both of them would throw the rope in their hands into the sea.
I think they did this ritual not to suffer more but to complete a process. As an internal process, until that rope ended, it was perhaps possible for them to perceive, layer by layer, that a period had ended. They had to return to their own lives with the memories left.
Farewells and Beginnings on the Calendar
As I was leaving the year behind, week by week, I completely let go of the rope when I reached the last week.
Of course, if it weren’t for the sound of exploding fireworks.
Maybe they sealed the farewell to the year that ended. (Still not necessary)
Time will pass anyway, at least it would be good to learn how to say goodbye to it.
Thus, we can say hello to new experiences and memories that will be dated 2024.
