The word for today is END. It may seem strange to write about the END at the beginning of the year, but sometimes to get on with the new, other things need to END.
The END can mean the part of a table that is the extreme edge of it. If you don't get along with someone it is a good idea to sit at the other END of the table from them. I might be at the END of my rope or my wits END. Old movies rolled until the credits said THE END; my childhood storybooks also said THE END when there was no more story to tell. Some ENDINGS are happy; some are not.
Sometimes things END and no one tells you. Sometimes ENDINGS come by surprise without warning. All of a sudden I find myself at the END of a roll of toilet paper. Car accidents and sudden illnesses END lives; relationships END. Some ENDS are clean breaks and others go on and on, seemingly without END. Seasons END; semesters END; jobs END, but war and poverty and suffering never seem to END. There is a position in football called a tight END, the position farthest from the center. When the game is over one may wonder, to what END?
When I hike I want to walk to the END of the trail. Some people get on a train or a bus and ride all the way until the END of the line. In these cases the END is simply a marker, a termination point. Get off the train or the bus and keep walking. There is no END to what one can say about the word END.
Rosie and I are coming to the END of over twenty consecutive days of dog guests at Amy & Rosie's B&B. We are tired, ready for our nonstop caregiving to END so we can rest and begin again.
To what END am I writing this? I am writing this to avoid feeling sad, and at the same time to acknowledge, the END of yet another brief romance. I am writing this to avoid feeling anticipatory grief about the likely END of my cat Albert's life.
Albert has been on this earth for almost twenty years. I have been watching him lose weight and struggle to urinate and defecate. I know THE END is near, but I don't know when it will come. I will have to wait and see whether or not this time -- today, this week, this month -- is actually THE END.
The END can mean the part of a table that is the extreme edge of it. If you don't get along with someone it is a good idea to sit at the other END of the table from them. I might be at the END of my rope or my wits END. Old movies rolled until the credits said THE END; my childhood storybooks also said THE END when there was no more story to tell. Some ENDINGS are happy; some are not.
Sometimes things END and no one tells you. Sometimes ENDINGS come by surprise without warning. All of a sudden I find myself at the END of a roll of toilet paper. Car accidents and sudden illnesses END lives; relationships END. Some ENDS are clean breaks and others go on and on, seemingly without END. Seasons END; semesters END; jobs END, but war and poverty and suffering never seem to END. There is a position in football called a tight END, the position farthest from the center. When the game is over one may wonder, to what END?
When I hike I want to walk to the END of the trail. Some people get on a train or a bus and ride all the way until the END of the line. In these cases the END is simply a marker, a termination point. Get off the train or the bus and keep walking. There is no END to what one can say about the word END.
Rosie and I are coming to the END of over twenty consecutive days of dog guests at Amy & Rosie's B&B. We are tired, ready for our nonstop caregiving to END so we can rest and begin again.
To what END am I writing this? I am writing this to avoid feeling sad, and at the same time to acknowledge, the END of yet another brief romance. I am writing this to avoid feeling anticipatory grief about the likely END of my cat Albert's life.
Albert has been on this earth for almost twenty years. I have been watching him lose weight and struggle to urinate and defecate. I know THE END is near, but I don't know when it will come. I will have to wait and see whether or not this time -- today, this week, this month -- is actually THE END.
I have returned to this blog because it is one of the few things in life I can control. I can say I have no more to say tonight. I can say I have come to THE END.
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