As with most things in life, there are songs with lyrics that describe things in way fewer words than I am ever capable of doing. It’s even better that those feelings get put to a melody and have layers of instruments surrounding them. I love that there are actually scientific studies on how music helps us heal and how it helps our minds grow and flourish. It’s something I’ve always known, but seeing the proof outside of myself is neat.

As we walk our paths through life, we have so many beautiful beginnings. We make our first friends in Kindergarten, we join our first sports team, we find our first best friend, we find something we are good at, we win our first award, we find our first love, we experience butterflies about something we’re so excited about for the next day that we can’t go to sleep.

These things keep us moving forward down our paths. We look forward to the next friend we will make, the next thing that gives us hope and butterflies. We know good things are out there because we have experienced them firsthand. That knowledge helps us keep moving.

It’s so easy to breathe, put our shoulders down, to look around at the beauty surrounding us when we are experiencing beginnings.

But what do you do with endings?

Well, just like seasons, you will experience endings. And you have two choices. You can allow them to swallow you up in sadness, or you can get to a point where you have faith that those endings are leading you to something better–even if you can’t see it.

I seem to be walking into a lot of endings, and I feel sad about them, especially since they are happening all at one time. However, I guess my faith is just too big to stay in that feeling? Maybe it’s the fact that I also have things of joy and hope surrounding me and it’s giving me more to focus on than just the sad?

As I sat this morning, thinking about all the things, I had a lot of mixed emotions. Funny enough, one of the things happening, instantly made me think of Taylor Swift’s song, “Things Will Change.” I love that song because I can relate so much to the sad beginning, but no matter what, I always have this spark of hope. I really can’t imagine being any other way, though.

I also love that Switchfoot is celebrating their 20th anniversary of their album “The Beautiful Letdown.” I have a lot of history with their songs seemingly walking alongside me through some sad times and I was so lucky to be able to photograph one of their shows years ago. Their song, “Dare You to Move” has always been amazing and I’m so glad they recorded it with Ryan Tedder for this. It brings the same chills as it did the first time I heard it. Hearing that song live is on a whole other level, though. So beautiful.

Below on the left is a blurry photo of when I first met Switchfoot in the parking lot of the old Roxy before their show. Still hilarious to me that my camera was set to manual focus. Of course it was…

The photo on the right was from the first time I actually got to see their show a few years later, in south GA no less.

Lately, I have watched way too many good people lose things, lose people. I’ve watched people trying to wade through their grief, their sadness, their anger.

If you happen to be wading through the unknown right now as well, just know that it has been my experience that no matter how devastating an ending seems, it’s no different than the leaves falling from the trees. You know that once you go dormant for a bit and sift through how you feel, what brought you there, and you allow the seasons to change naturally while you wait…you will eventually start to see this beautiful picture of what you want. Not only will you start to see what you want, but you will also start seeing each step that will lead you to it.

Life is hard and heavy and scary. It just is. But don’t let the sadness take you away from doing the work so you’ll be ready when it’s time to start budding again; having your tree be full of leaves again.

~Alisha