When One Door Closes

We are all very familiar with the famous Alexander Graham Bell quote

“When one door closes, another opens,”

But, we all also seem to forget the rest of the passage,

“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.”

When we finally begin to open our eyes, our hearts, and our minds to the realization that one door has closed, one journey has ended, and look for the new path in which our lives will thus move forward through, that is what we, my friends, call reaching The Beginning of the End. 

The beginning of the end doesn’t need to be sad, although at many times, places, moments, the journeys end of a person’s life, or of a journeys end of a persons relationship with another could bring us

D

O

W

N,

Many of these endings, are only leading us to a far greater journey that life has left for us to live and experience. The memories of journeys that have ended may hurt, the memories may fade, or that memories might push us to further improve ourselves, but it is all about how we react to the closing of one door, and how open we are when we unfasten another.

The beginning of the end is beautiful. “Take it all in. You are blessed to be here. 100% blessed.” – The Beginning of the End

The beginning of the end allows for us to let the past go and permit fate to put the rest of your life’s pieces together, so that in the actual end we experience all of life’s happiness, because that’s all we want in the end.

Happiness.

Imperceptive Spaces

It's all about the travels that we have made that show us to whether or not we are ready to take on the darker secrets of the world - Travelers Prohibited

The world is filled with so many variations of life, heights, summits, cliffs, people, paths, and water. In one lifetime it is hard to discover the entirety of it all, but without traveling, without the journeys, and without the destinations, both metaphorically and literally, an individual cannot grow.

Life itself is a metaphor for exploring, yourself as a person, as well as your physical surroundings.

There are so many ups and downs, so many obstacles one most experience and with stand to get them to become the person they are ultimately meant to be. There are darker parts of the world that many never see because they are not brave enough to step into imperceptive spaces. 

Those who feel like they will lose full control and won’t let go of that hold will never experience the entirety of the travel, hindering their reach of life’s complete fulfillment of happiness. This “self controller” will live in his or her own imagination because they are afraid of what could be so instead the only thing they have left is their imagination. 

“Imagination alone offers some imitation of what can be,” as described by Andre Breton in his “First Manifesto of Surrealism.” But the imagination alone cannot make up for the missed life experiences.

Experience, Memories, Journey

It’s the Journey,, is what I always tell myself when I am going through a new experience. Whether a positive one or a negative one, each journey teaches a lesson.

“Its not about the destination, but about your journey along the way.”

In times of struggle or negativity it is always hard to focus on the journey. You ask yourself millions of questions…

            Why me?

                        Why this?

                                    Why now?

In times of balance and positivity you lose sight of the journey you made once you reached your destination, because you feel as if though you do not need to look back if you have already made it to your goal.

Journeys create memories and they create stories. Journeys introduce people to new places, things, and even other people, just as Andre’s journey introduced him to his Nadja, and from there, Andre created memories and wrote his stories.

Life, as tawdry as it may sound, is filled with journeys, without those journeys you would be at a stand still. Lessons would never be learned, stories would never be created so that they could later be told. Life would just be a bottomless pit of nothing and who wants to live in a world of no experience, no journeys, no memories?

Summer Memories

Summer is the time for memories to be made. Whether with family, friends, and loved ones, it’s the time we’ve made to enjoy each other and remove ourselves from Work and School. That Day Summer Hits, the memories start to create themselves.

Memories: something remembered from the past; a recollection

Memories alter throughout a person’s life. Some become fog, a black and white, maybe even a grey sight so far filed in the back of your cerebellum. Over the years, the facts of the memory become blurred questions just as henna fades with time. Others, if they’re strong enough, stick so close to the front of your mind. When that specific memory is chosen and recalled, it could feel as if it only happened minutes, hours, or even days ago. The smells, the taste, the people, the scenes, all stay carved, like a tattoo, no longer like the fading henna. The colors are vibrant; the feelings still trickle through your skin.

“When the smog settles in, though, trapping heat in a bell jar of sweat, the sidewalks get hot enough for conduction and the rubber soles of shoes begin to burn feet.”

Could it be the history of the environment wraps itself into the thoughts of those visiting? These memorials marked their territory in a part of our mind for some reason. Was it the experience?

            “The sculptures are only a passing distraction, a preamble towards the museums, the Smithsonian welcoming them in to air-conditioned archival rooms…”

Or could it be that our memory is holding on to someone or something that was lost and in order to never forget them?

“… because that is the exact place where my mind wanders back to any time I think of the last time where we were us, a family of five.”

Wandering Back

“Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.” 

- Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

When I Look at You

There is only so much your memory can hold on to before the images become a vague fog. Life is always occurring, even when you are not. Memories get pushed back, as your life keeps moving forward. Yet, it’s the memories that you wish to remember forever that seem to always have a place in the front of the line.

This spot, this image, this trip, will always be one of the first images in the front of the line. It is the last place all of us traveled together as a family of five. How each of us will remember it varies, due to age, and experiences. I was lucky enough to be 18 and realize the importance of this trip. My sister on the other hand was only 6. Yes, she knew he was sick, but at that age who can really understand the importance of “one last time.”

Every image and every memory is as unclear as the view of the Golden Gate Bridge throughout an early morning in San Francisco. Funny, because that is the exact place where my mind wanders back to any time I think of the last time where we were us, a family of five.