Change, Loss and Retirement
- Dean Huyck
- Jun 16, 2016
- 2 min read
We tend to approach change with a really high degree of caution. This might be due to the fact that with change there is usually loss. You can't have everything. Heck, where would you put it? Yes, it's the loss that really scares us. No matter our circumstances, life is inevitably a series of a sudden or gradual losses punctuated by periods of respite that are actually just staging areas for the loss is still to come. But never mind the obvious losses that any life brings. Even when things are thrilling, joyful, merry, and bright, there is still loss. This sounds like just an incredibly depressing state of affairs. It sounds that way because we view loss in such a negative light. However, what is a moment of time if not a moment of time that is passing? What is the getting or accomplishing or experiencing of anything if not the occasion for the slow disengagement with the delight one feels, a disengagement and disenchantment that begins at the very moment the delight appears?Real life does not match the naive descriptions of it we have received in the press notices passed on to us by parents, teachers, and social institutions. Real life is contradictory and problematic. If you're willing to look unflinchingly, you will see that even happiness depends on loss. The Gratitude, love, or joy that we feel depends on the temporariness of things. The rarity of that which we are grateful is why it delights us so. There can be no joy without loss. Shouldn't a time of loss also be a time of gratitude?
So at my time of change... and the losses that will go with it, I am eternally and deeply grateful for every last morsel of adventure my time in education has afforded me. Yes, I have lost all of that. However, I so deeply cherished it all and its fleeting nature. It is with that same sense of adventure I move forward... knowing that all is fleeting... and I need to Pay Attention.
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