When summer changes to fall, would you say that summer has ended?

On one level, yes. It is no longer as sunny, or warm, and the kids come home from camp ready for a new school year. It feels different.

On another level, no. It is just a matter of time before summer “begins” anew again.

Things change form and cycles come to relative completion, even as new ones take their place. That’s what we typically call an “ending.”

There can be pain associated with things changing form and cycles coming to relative completion. We tend to reach for the static and concrete, or what is known and has become familiar.

Ultimately, it is pain of our own making, as we are always — always — being given what we are asking for in every moment. If only we knew that with crystal clarity. However, what fun are movies for which you knew the full story in advance?

We must summon the courage to bear every trial that so called endings bring with them. It is not easy to bury a loved one, retire a career, accept injury, or adjust with a new reality taking shape.

What good is it to cling to summer? What good is it to wish it were warmer in fall’s cool breezes?

Suffering, i.e., chronic pain is wishing for things to be different than they are.

What we do then is love everything. The coming and the going. The ending and the beginning. The triumph and the trial.

We start to perceive them as one energy wearing a different costume, depending on the need of our evolution. How much kinder does the world become when we see it constantly providing for us, meeting each and every one of our needs with a type of precision bordering on the level of genius?

We no longer have a reason to complain. All sense of lack and limitation begins to dissolve. Like any great movie or tale, we look forward to what comes next.

We now know whatever it is, is a gift.