Last evening I was leaving the office. Going down into the
parking lot. Got off the elevator and stepped out to find an empty cart. A cart
like a still life painting standing there on its own waiting for its story to
be told. Its form to be illustrated. All sorts of emotions passed through me as
I looked at that empty cart. The very cart I had seen full, just a few hours
earlier, with the possessions, memories, collections of a woman who had been made
redundant after having worked for 18 years at the same job. Remembering seeing
the woman going back and forth packing up what was her life for 18 years. A
life that was no longer hers and my heart broke.
I looked at that empty cart - a symbolic reminder of the
fact that we come into this world with nothing and we leave the world the same way,
with nothing. No matter how much we
accumulate. No matter how much time we have. We all begin and end the same way.
Forcing me to question why we spend so much of our lives accumulating so much
stuff only for it to be left behind when we go. When we move to the next
dimension. When this life of accumulation means nothing.
I stood and thought about all the things the woman had been taking
away from the life that was no longer hers and wondered what it felt like to be
closing the door on 18 years of life and walking into the unknown. Looking at
the empty cart and thinking about how her whole life has and will change.
Wondering if she is fearful. Knowing she has to be fearful. Change always causes
fear particularly when it comes when we are least expecting it to come.
Thinking of how that empty cart was the depiction of
something that needed to be filled and would be filled once again with someone
else’s treasures. Someone else’s new beginning in the same way it had been
filled with the woman’s ending. Like the
revolving door. Endings and beginnings. Beginnings and Endings.
I inhaled and exhaled then finally found the will to walk
away from the empty cart. Knowing I can’t change what has happened. That I have
no control over anyone’s life. Knowing there is a period of grieving we all
experience with change. Remembering there is a cycle to everything and that as
long as we are present moment living, we will have the power and will to ride
the cycles.
Thinking that empty cart was left there for a reason for me.
To remind me that not so long ago I was in the same position as the woman. Reminding
me that life can change in an instant but as long as I have faith, love,
compassion, my own dreams and accept change as an opening for me to explore
more about who I am and who I am not then I will be okay. As will she if she
takes her time to understand why she is in the position she finds herself.
In gratitude to taking pause to understand the symbolic
nature of that empty cart for me. For reminding me life is a revolving door.
The empty cart will once again be filled in more ways than that woman thought
possible. I know because the same
happened to me and will happen again in the future because life is a cycle of
changes.
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