Unfinished business

Making in a life incomplete

Hello, readers. It’s apparently “Philosophical Friday” because today’s story is slightly off the deep end. I hope you find a way to make sense of some of your unfinished business this weekend. ~JRC

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Image by Abbie Bernet via Unsplash.

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I pride myself on tying up loose ends and getting the job done. When I make dinner, I do the dishes as I go. I prioritize and check things off lists all day long. And I almost always clean my shop after a big day.

I manage my crazy world by doing all I can to get things finished.

And yet! My space is still littered with unfinished business. From unfiled paperwork to incomplete builds, much of the clutter that weighs me down involves all that remains undone.

Some of these things will never be. A build that went sideways, a test that proved impossible, or a whim that wained once the drudgery set in - these won't see the finish line. But not all will remain unfinished.

Some projects simply are on hold, waiting for the right time to resume.

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Unfinished business accumulates because life is - complicated. We all know this to be true. And we can't do it all. So when curveballs come our way, we must choose. Do we finish the task at hand, or do we embrace the change, setting aside some projects, and prioritize others?

In such cases, making the wise decision, what to do and what to let go, isn't always easy. Or even obvious. But when we take stock of our wants and needs and listen to our hearts while being mindful, hopefully, these decisions come more readily.

And then we must make a choice. But never an excuse.

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Not all will be happy, regardless of what we choose. And the talkers, detractors, and naysayers will have a field day with it no matter what (because that's what they always do). But the zero-sum game is an illusion. Life is not so black and white. Life is not as small as these simple interpretations of right and wrong, of finished versus unfinished, portray it to be.

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Significant changes in an infinitely complex world always mean incomplete solutions.

Life, rather than simple and kept, is confounding and untidy. We can't pick it all up, not all at once, anyway. To expect our world to conform to a series of completed projects one after another is foolish. Living is far messier than that, and it will crush us if we deny the disorder. But it will swollow us whole if we don’t continue to fight it - one finished project at a time.

Life is unfinished business. But the business of living must go on. So we keep at it, completeling what we can until it’s no longer possible.

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Until next time.

JRC